JAMES, Henry Lionel

1857 - 1944

Henry Lionel James was born at Deptford, Greenwich, Kent on 20 March 1857, son of Revd Thomas James and his wife Sarah Spedding James, née Smith, who married at St Mary Lewisham on 25 August 1853. Henry was educated at Royal Guildford Grammar School and in 1871, a 13-year-old, living at 6 Guyscliffe, Bradford, Yorkshire with his parents, 45-year-old Thomas, born at Canterbury, Kent and 42-year-old Sarah, born at Islington, London, and his 16-year-old sibling brother Gilbert. He studied for the ministry at St Aidan's Theological College, Birkenhead and was ordained at Norwich Cathedral in May 1880. In 1881, a 23-year-old curate at St Clement’s church, Ipswich, living at 37 Fonnereau Road, Ipswich, the home of the then rector Robert Browne (1835-1900). A watercolour and landscape painter, a member of the Ipswich Fine Art Club 1885-1890, exhibiting from 44 Christchurch Street, Ipswich in 1884, six watercolours 'Felixstowe on the Ipswich Road, Winter', 'On the Blyth, Walberswick', 'Bawdsey Ferry', 'The Old Cable, Dunwich', 'The Ferry, Walberswick' and 'Shrimp Cottages, Southwold' and from the same address in 1885, six watercolours 'The Bridge, Walberswick', 'The Golf Tower, Bawdsey Ferry', 'The Quay, Walberswick', 'Walberswick Deserted', 'Eastern Broad, Suffolk' and 'Interior of Walton Church'. After a brief period at Laxley, Isle of Man, in 1885 he took the vicarage of Blythburgh and Walberswick, Suffolk and compiled a topographical record of the villages in watercolour paintings. In 1887 he took the living of St Cuthbert’s, Everton, Liverpool and in 1891, was the 33-year-old vicar of St Cuthbert’s, living at 66 Anfield Road, Walton-on-the-Hill with his 59-year-old widowed mother Sarah, and whilst at Everton continued to exhibit at Ipswich Fine Art Club, exhibiting a total of 33 works between 1884-1889, from Ipswich, Walberwick and from Everton, Liverpool. In 1891 he was instituted to the rectory of St Dunstan's-in-the-West, Fleet Street, London. He married at Walton-on-the-Hill, Liverpool in 1895, 20-year-old Sarah Ellen Loheide and in 1901, a 43-year-old clerk in holy orders, living at 58 Clovelly Gardens, St Pancras, London with his 25-year-old wife Sarah, born Walton-on-the-Hill. In 1911, they were living at ‘Croxteth’ Queen’s Road, South Benfleet, Essex and in 1919 he took the living of Hatfield, Berkshire. In 1925 he returned to Norfolk as rector of Alderford with Attlebridge and in 1929 of Belaugh near Wroxham and on 10 December 1931 was inducted as rector of St Andrew's Church Fersfield, Norfolk. Henry Lionel James died at Fersfield on 9 December 1944, aged 87. Much of his work in watercolours is in the possession of Colchester & Ipswich Museums Service

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Works by This Artist