James Seymour (25 October 1879 – 30 September 1930) was an English professional

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by str ...

er who played primarily for Kent County Cricket Club in the early years of the 20th century. Seymour made 553

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is one of three or more days' scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officia ...

appearances in a career that lasted from 1900 until 1926, scoring over 27,000 runs in his career. He was the cricketer who established in law the principle that income from a

benefit match A benefit is a match or season of activities granted by a sporting body to a loyal sportsman to boost their income before retirement. Often this is in the form of a match for which all the ticket proceeds are given to the player in question. Howeve ...

should not normally be taxable in a case ruled on by the High Court in 1927. The judgement has had significant financial impacts over the years for other sports people. Seymour was born in

West Hoathly West Hoathly is a village and civil parish in the Mid Sussex District of West Sussex, England, located south west of East Grinstead. In the 2001 census 2,121 people, of whom 1,150 were economically active, lived in 813 households. At the 201 ...

in Sussex in 1879. He died in 1930 aged 50 four years after he completed his cricket career. His brother

John John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Secon ...

played first-class cricket for

Northamptonshire Northamptonshire (; abbreviated Northants.) is a county in the East Midlands of England. In 2015, it had a population of 723,000. The county is administered by two unitary authorities: North Northamptonshire and West Northamptonshire. It is ...

and Sussex.

Cricket career

Seymour made his

debut for

London County Cricket Club London County Cricket Club was a short-lived cricket club founded by the Crystal Palace Company. In 1898 they invited WG Grace to help them form a first-class cricket club. Grace accepted the offer and became the club's secretary, manager and ...

in 1900 but played only three times for the side and was offered a place in Kent's

Tonbridge Nursery The Angel Ground was a sports ground at Tonbridge in the English county of Kent. It was used as a venue for first-class cricket by Kent County Cricket Club between 1869 and 1939 and then for association football by Tonbridge Angels F.C., until ...

where young professionals were coached by Captain William McCanlis.James Seymour - Obituary
''

Wisden Cricketers' Almanack ''Wisden Cricketers' Almanack'', or simply ''Wisden'', colloquially the Bible of Cricket, is a cricket reference book published annually in the United Kingdom. The description "bible of cricket" was first used in the 1930s by Alec Waugh in a ...

'', 1931. Retrieved 2016-04-11. He first appeared for Kent in 1902 having qualified for the county by residence, and was soon a regular in the side, appearing at least 20 times each season until

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

and in all but two seasons until his retirement at the end of the 1926 season.First-class batting and fielding in each season by James Seymour
CricketArchive. Retrieved 2016-04-27. A right-handed batsman, he was part of the Kent side which won the

County Championship The County Championship (referred to as the LV= Insurance County Championship for sponsorship reasons) is the domestic first-class cricket competition in England and Wales and is organised by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB). It bec ...

four times between

1906 Events January–February * January 12 – Persian Constitutional Revolution: A nationalistic coalition of merchants, religious leaders and intellectuals in Persia forces the shah Mozaffar ad-Din Shah Qajar to grant a constitution, ...

and 1913.Carlaw D (2020) ''Kent County Cricketers A to Z. Part One: 1806–1914'' (revised edition), pp. 481–485.
Available online
at the

Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians The Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians (ACS) was founded in England in 1973 for the purpose of researching and collating information about the history and statistics of cricket. Originally called the Association of Cricket Statis ...

. Retrieved 2020-12-21.) Seymour scored more than 1,000 runs in a season 16 times, including in all four Championship winning years, and made 2,088 in 1913, 1,932 of them for Kent, at the time the second highest aggregate scored during a season for Kent to Wally Hardinge who scored 2,018 runs during the same season. He is fifth on the list of all time run scorers for Kent with 26,818 and scored 53 centuries for the County which remains the sixth highest number scored for Kent in first-class cricket.Most centuries for Kent
CricketArchive. Retrieved 2016-04-11.
CricketArchive. Retrieved 2016-04-27. Against Worcestershire in 1904 he became the first player to score a century in both innings of a match for Kent, a feat he repeated twice more for the county. His innings of 204 against

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English cities on its south coast, Southampton and Portsmouth, Hampshire ...

at Tonbridge in 1907 was at the time a record for Kent, a record which he went on to twice exceed, scoring 218 not out against

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and Grea ...

in 1913 at the County Ground, Leyton and 214 in 1914 against the same County at

Tunbridge Wells Royal Tunbridge Wells is a town in Kent, England, southeast of central London. It lies close to the border with East Sussex on the northern edge of the High Weald, whose sandstone geology is exemplified by the rock formation High Rocks. T ...

. Seymour holds the Kent record for consecutive County Championship matches played for Kent, appearing in 196 consecutive Championship matches for the County between 1902 and 1911.Geraint Jones reaches impressive County Championship milestone
Kent County Cricket Club, 2012-09-03. Retrieved 2016-04-10. He was described in his

Wisden ''Wisden Cricketers' Almanack'', or simply ''Wisden'', colloquially the Bible of Cricket, is a cricket reference book published annually in the United Kingdom. The description "bible of cricket" was first used in the 1930s by Alec Waugh in a ...

obituary as an "indispensable member" of the Kent side who "could never be left out", despite Kent having an excellent side in the years before the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. He appeared in 536 matches for the county, a total which places him third on the list of most appearances for Kent.Most appearances for Kent
CricketArchive. Retrieved 2016-02-06. As well as being a high quality batsman, Seymour was an excellent slip fielder. He took a total of 659 catches for Kent in his career, second only to

Frank Woolley Frank Edward Woolley (27 May 1887 – 18 October 1978) was an English professional cricketer who played for Kent County Cricket Club between 1906 and 1938 and for the England cricket team. A genuine all-rounder, Woolley was a left-handed batsman ...

,Most catches in a career for Kent
CricketArchive. Retrieved 2016-04-27. including taking six in one innings in 1904 against a touring South African side at Canterbury. As of April 2016 this remains a Kent record shared jointly with Stuart Leary who repeated the feat in 1958.Most catches in an innings for Kent
CricketArchive. Retrieved 2016-04-27. He bowled

off-break Off spin is a type of finger spin bowling in cricket. A bowler who uses this technique is called an off spinner. Off spinners are right-handed spin bowlers who use their fingers to spin the ball. Their normal delivery is an off break, which spi ...

s occasionally, taking 17 wickets in his career. Seymour's final first-class match was in September 1926, appearing for Kent against MCC at the end of the 1926 season.First-class matches played by James Seymour
CricketArchive. Retrieved 2016-04-27. He made a total of 553 first-class appearances in his career, including three for the Players and toured America with Kent in 1903. After his retirement he coached at

Epsom College Epsom College is a co-educational independent school on Epsom Downs, Surrey, England, for pupils aged 11 to 18. It was founded in 1853 as a boys' school to provide support for poor members of the medical profession such as pensioners and orph ...

Benefit match and consequences

Seymour was awarded a

by Kent in 1920. The match, which was a

fixture, was against

Canterbury Canterbury (, ) is a cathedral city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, situated in the heart of the City of Canterbury local government district of Kent, England. It lies on the River Stour. The Archbishop of Canterbury is the primate of ...

. The game raised enough money for Seymour for him to be able to buy a fruit farm in Marden in 1923.Williamson M (2006
Indebted to James Seymour
CricInfo, 2006-01-21. Retrieved 2016-04-11. The game had important consequences for all county cricketers as the

Inland Revenue The Inland Revenue was, until April 2005, a department of the British Government responsible for the collection of direct taxation, including income tax, national insurance contributions, capital gains tax, inheritance tax, corporation t ...

used it as a test case in an attempt to define money raised by benefit matches or events as taxable income. The match had raised £939 but in 1923 the Revenue claimed that Seymour owed £3,752 in tax, including interest and penalties, more than he owned in terms of assets.Sandford C (2014) ''The Final Over: The Cricketers of Summer 1914'', The History Press.
Available online
retrieved 2016-04-27. Selvey M (2009
Time for county cricketers' tax-free benefits to be pensioned off
''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'', 2009-11-05. Retrieved 2016-04-27. Seymour appealed against the judgment and the case went all the way to the

House of Lords The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by appointment, heredity or official function. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminste ...

and in 1927 was eventually ruled in Seymour's favour. The case, known as Reed v Seymour, meant that sports professionals' benefits and testimonials, in certain circumstances, remained tax free.Colbey R (1998
Court On The Boundary
''

'', 1998. Retrieved 2016-04-11. A government spending review in 2015 announced an end to the practice and that from April 2017 benefit events would be subject to

Income Tax An income tax is a tax imposed on individuals or entities (taxpayers) in respect of the income or profits earned by them (commonly called taxable income). Income tax generally is computed as the product of a tax rate times the taxable income. Tax ...

in the United Kingdom.PCA statement on changes to sporting benefits

Professional Cricketers' Association The Professional Cricketers' Association is the representative body of past and present first-class cricketers in England and Wales, founded in 1967 by former England fast bowler Fred Rumsey (when it was known as the Cricketers' Association). In t ...

, 2015-12-01. Retrieved 2016-04-27.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Seymour, James 1879 births 1930 deaths Kent cricketers English cricketers Players cricketers London County cricketers English cricketers of 1890 to 1918 Players of the South cricketers North v South cricketers People from Marden, Kent Cricketers from Kent