James Seymour

Who was James Seymour?

James Seymour was a Kent cricketer from 1902 until 1926, having previously played for W. G. Grace's London County Cricket Club in first-class matches in 1900 and 1901. He was born in Sussex.

A right-handed batsman, he was part of the Kent side which won the County Championship in 1906, contributing 1,096 runs. He passed 2000 runs in a season in 1913 with an aggregate of 2,088 runs. Against Worcestershire in 1904 he became the first ever player to score a century in both innings of a match for Kent. His innings of 204 against Hampshire at Tonbridge in 1907 was at the time a record for Kent, a record which he went on to twice exceed.

He finished his career with 26818 runs for Kent which puts him 4th on their all time run getters list. He is also one of only six players to have scored more than 50 centuries with Kent as of 2008. He made 1,000 runs in a season 16 times.

His benefit match was Kent v Hampshire at Canterbury in 1920. The game had important consequences for all county cricketers as the Inland Revenue used it as a test case in an attempt to define benefits as taxable income.