Ernest William Jones (24 October 1870 – 15 September 1941) FICS was a Welsh international chartered shipbroker, and a first class cricketer.

Family

Ernest was born in Glamorgan on 24 October 1870 to an upper middle class family. He was the elder son of Lieutenant-Colonel William Matthew Jones VD (1838 - 1921),The Herald of Wales, 20 September 1941, 'Well-Known Docksman and Cricketer', p.3The Cambrian, 14 September 1900 of the 1st Swansea Corps of the 1st Glamorganshire Artillery Volunteers, who was a founder and owner of the international chartered shipbrokerage M. Jones and Bro. (1856–1942). His paternal grandfather was the mariner Matthew Jones Senior (1800–1867).

Ernest's only sibling was the prominent gynaecologist Arthur Webb-Jones (1875–1917).1851–1901 inc. Wales Census. Census Returns of England and Wales, 1851–1901 inc. Kew, Surrey, England: Records for Ernest W Jones: The National Archives of the UK (TNA): Public Record Office (PRO)1871 and 1911 Wales Census. Census Returns of England and Wales, 1871. Kew, Surrey, England: The National Archives of the UK (TNA): Public Record Office (PRO), 1871. Record for Ernest W Jones Class: RG10; Piece: 5456; Folio: 50; Page: 10; GSU roll: 848051

Ernest's cousins were polyglot Edwin Price Jones (1855 - 1924), who (after a lauded pupillage at the Royal Masonic School, Wood Green)The Freemasons' Magazine and Masonic Mirror, Vol. 23, June to December 1870, Published for The Freemasons' Magazine Company, Strand, London, 1870, pp. 53-54The Freemasons' Magazine and Masonic Mirror, December 1869, pp. 73-74 was Vice-Consul for Chile and President of the Swansea Chamber of Commerce; and William (Bill) Wynn Jones, who was Anglican Bishop of Central Tanganyika.

Ernest was educated at Wycliffe College, Gloucestershire. He lived at Casina Rosa,Files for Webb-Jones, James William, Matriculated 1923, Archives of Worcester College, Oxford. Mumbles, Glamorgan.

Chartered Shipbroker Ernest inherited ownership of the international chartered shipbrokerage M. Jones and Bro. (1856–1942) that was based at the South Dock of Swansea Docks, and traded with France, Ireland, and Glasgow. Ernest served as its director for his life.The Western Mail, 17 September 1941, p. 3

He was a member of the Port Employers' Association, a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Shipbrokers, and Chairman of the Swansea Pilotage Authority from 1930 until his death, which occurred at Pinewood Road, on 15 September 1941.The Herald of Wales, 20 December 1941, p.2 His shipbrokerage, M. Jones and Bro., was dissolved in 1942, as a consequence of World War II.

Ernest during March 1912 gave evidence at the coroner's inquest into the suicide of his cousin and business partner Matthew Tertius Jones (1853 - 1912), who had committed suicide using 'Prussic acid' (hydrogen cyanide) which Matthew Tertius had claimed to need to kill a dog.The Western Mail, 02 March 1912, p. 3

Cricket Ernest had a 45-year cricketing career for Swansea from 1886 to 1904; and for Glamorgan County Cricket Club from 1890 to 1911 (between which he played in every single match and was a member of the side that won the Minor Counties Championship in 1900); and (in first class cricket) for South Wales from 1905 and 1909, during which he captained them against Australia at Cardiff; and for the Gentleman of Glamorgan from 1913.

Henry Sampson, under his pseudonym 'Pendragon', described Ernest William Jones thus: It would be no exaggeration to say that the late Mr E. W. Jones was the most successful of all the amateur batsmen produced by Swansea in the days before the promotion of Glamorgan to first-class rank. He had some prolific opening partnerships with W. J. Bancroft, and I recall now, on one occasion, the pair knocked up over 200 against Llandovery before they were separated. Another memory of 'E. W.' is that of his captaincy of a South Wales XI against the Australians at Cardiff. ...I was enabled, through the good offices of Mr. Jones, to get an interview with M. A. Noble, the Australian captain, in the course of which he referred to the side which opposed the tourists as being equal if not better than many of those which were engaged in the first-class counties' competition. E. W. Jones belonged to a period long before the formation of the South Wales and Monmouthshire League. [...] A fine specimen of manhood, 'E. W.' would have been a great acquisition to Glamorgan, if he had been of a later generation. Not only was he an astute captain, but he was 'first-class' as a batsman in every sense of the term. 'E. W.' was a contemporary, at St. Helen's, of other outstanding batsmen besides W. J. Bancroft. He played with that immaculate builder of useful scores, the late Stanley Rees, and associated with him as well were [sic] the late Dr. Edgar Reid.

Ernest, and his son James William, and his cousin William (Bill) Wynn Jones, were all members of the Jesters Cricket Club, which was co-founded by James William during 1928.

Marriage and Issue On 10 September 1900, at All Saints' Church and at the British Consulate at Rouen, Haute Normandie, France,The Western Mail, 13 September 1900, Births, Marriages, and Deaths. Ernest married Aimée Elizabeth Parson (1873–1918), who was the French-born third daughter of James Holmes Parson, of Le Houlme and Montville, Seine-Maritime, by his wife Jessy Burton,Entry for Helen Burton Parson (b. 15 February 1885), Archives de Seine-Maritime, Reference Number: EC76452-1885-N-005905-0000000033Entry for Helène Burton Parson (d. 14 November 1909), Archives de Seine-Maritime, Reference Number: EC76217-1909-D-026625-0000000610 who was a daughter of the solicitor William Warwick Burton.

Ernest and Aimée's only child was the choral educator James William Webb-Jones (b. 1904), whose only child Bridget married the choral educator Peter Stanley LyonsPeter S. Lyons and Witham Hall, Lincoln, Rutland & Stamford Mercury, Friday, February 8, 1985 in 1957.Obituary of Peter Stanley Lyons, Rutland and Stamford Mercury, Friday, 20 April 2007.

Wife's family Ernest's wife Aimée Elizabeth Parson was the granddaughter of the solicitor and engineer George John Parson, of Adelphi Terrace,The London Gazette, 19 January 1858, p.280 Strand, and Camden Square, Middlesex, and Haslemere, Surrey,The London Gazette, 21 November 1871, p.4884 and Anna Maria Holmes.Entry for James Holmes Parson (b. 1845), of High Street, Haslemere, Surrey, England, in 1851 England and Wales Census, Parish of Haslemere, Surrey, England, Registrar's District Hambledon UnionThe London Observer, 30 October 1843, p.4

Ernest's wife's eldest sister Jessie/Jessy Sarah Parson (later Endall)The Warwick and Warwickshire Advertiser, 26 September 1903, p. 8The Royal College of Nursing, The British Journal of Nursing, 7 May 1921, 'A Nurses' Unit for Greece', p.262The Royal College of Nursing, The British Journal of Nursing, 14 January 1922, 'The Greek Nursing Unit', p.26 (d. 22 April 1941)Entry for Endall, Jessy Sarah, England & Wales Probate Index, 1858–1995 had been selected by Crown Princess Sofia of Greece to be from 1898The Royal College of Nursing, The Nursing Record & Hospital World, 25 August 1900, p.154 Lady Superintendent and MatronThe Royal College of Nursing, The British Journal of Nursing, 18 February 1922, 'The Greek Nursing Unit', p.104The Royal College of Nursing, The British Journal of Nursing, 12 November 1921, 'The Greek Nursing Unit', p.308 of the First Military Hospital at Athens,The Royal College of Nursing, The Nursing Record & Hospital World, Volume 21, 3 December 1898, 'The Silver Lining', p.452 for which she received the Commemorative Medal of the Red Cross from Queen Olga of Greece.The Royal College of Nursing, The Nursing Record & Hospital World, Volume 22, 22 April 1899, p.314 Jessie/Jessy Sarah Parson had been previously Lady Superintendent of the English Hospital at the Piraeus during the Greco-Turkish War (1897),The Royal College of Nursing, The Nursing Record & Hospital World, 16 July 1898, Volume 21, 'Nursing Pioneers in Greece', p.49 and was latterly, as Jessie/Jessy Sarah Endall, Matron of the Children's Hospital at Athens. Jessie/Jessy Sarah married, on 11 September 1903, at Kamloops, British Columbia, George William Endall, of Monte Creek, British Columbia, who was the fourth son of William Endall of Henley-in-Arden, England.

Ernest's wife's only brother James W. L. married Ethel Tullidge, who was the third daughter of T. I. Tullidge of Exeter, during 1901.The Exeter Flying Post, 25 May 1901, p. 5

References