Ernest William Jones

Ernest was born in Glamorgan on 24 October 1870 to an upper middle class family.^[1][2] He was the elder son of Lieutenant-Colonel William Matthew Jones VD (b. 1838),^[3] 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 Brothers (1856–1942).^[4][5] His paternal grandfather was the mariner Matthew Jones (1800–1867).

Ernest's only sibling was the prominent gynaecologist Arthur Webb-Jones (1875–1917).^[6][7]

Ernest's cousins were Edwin Price Jones, who (after a lauded pupillage in classical literature and English at the Royal Masonic School, Wood Green)^[8] was Vice-Consul for Chile^[9] and Secretary to the Chamber of Commerce;^[4] and William (Bill) Wynn Jones, who was Anglican Bishop of Central Tanganyika.^[10][11][12]

Ernest was educated at Wycliffe College, Gloucestershire.^[1] He lived at Mumbles, Glamorgan.^[13]

Ernest inherited ownership of the international chartered shipbrokerage M. Jones and Brothers (1856–1942)^[5] that was based at Swansea Docks,^[14] and served as its director for his entire life.^[15] He was Chairman of the Swansea Pilotage Authority from 1930^[1] until his death on 15 September 1941,^[15][2] after which his shipbrokerage, M. Jones and Brothers,^[4] was dissolved in 1942, as a consequence of World War II.^[16]

Ernest during March 1912 gave evidence at the coroner's inquest into the suicide of his cousin and business partner Matthew Tertius Jones, who had committed suicide using 'Prussic acid' (hydrogen cyanide) which he claimed to need to kill a dog.^[17]

Ernest had a 45-year cricketing career playing for Swansea from 1886^[1] 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;^[15] and for the Gentleman of Glamorgan from 1913.^[2]

Ernest,^[2] and his son James William,^[18] and his cousin William (Bill) Wynn Jones,^[19] were all members of the Jesters Cricket Club, which was co-founded by James William, including in its 1931 side.

On 10 September 1900, at All Saints' Church and at the British Consulate at Rouen, Haute Normandie, France,^[3] Ernest married Aimée Elizabeth Parson^[20] (1873–1913), who was the French-born third daughter of James Holmes Parson,^[3] of Le Houlme^[21] and Montville, Seine-Maritime,^[3] by his wife Jessy Burton,^[22][23] who was a daughter of the solicitor William Warwick Burton.^[24][25]

Ernest and Aimée's only child^[15] was the choral educator James William Webb-Jones (b. 1904),^[20] whose only child Bridget married the choral educator Peter Stanley Lyons^[26] in 1957.^[27]

Wife's family

Ernest's wife Aimée Elizabeth Parson was the granddaughter of the solicitor and inventor^[28] George John Parson, of Adelphi Terrace, Strand, and Camden Square, Middlesex, and Haslemere, Surrey,^[29] and Anna Maria Holmes.^[30][31]

Ernest's wife's eldest sister Jessie/Jessy Sarah Parson (later Endall)^[21][32][33] (d. 22 April 1941)^[34] had been selected by Crown Princess Sofia of Greece to be from 1898^[35] Lady Superintendent and Matron^[36][37] of the First Military Hospital at Athens,^[38] for which she received the Commemorative Medal of the Red Cross from Queen Olga of Greece.^[39] Jessie/Jessy Sarah Parson had been previously Lady Superintendent of the English Hospital at the Piraeus during the Greco-Turkish War (1897),^[40] and was latterly, as Jessie/Jessy Sarah Endall, Matron of the Children's Hospital at Athens.^[33] 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.^[21]

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.^[41]