James Seymour (cricketer)

James Seymour (25 October 1879 – 30 September 1930) was an English professional cricketer who played primarily for Kent County Cricket Club in the early years of the 20th century. Seymour made 553 first-class cricket 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 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 in Sussex in 1879. He died in 1930 aged 50 four years after he completed his cricket career. His brother John played first-class cricket for Northamptonshire and Sussex.

Seymour made his first-class cricket debut for London County Cricket Club in 1900 but played only three times for the side and was offered a place in Kent's Tonbridge Nursery where young professionals were coached by Captain William McCanlis. 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 and in all but two seasons until his retirement at the end of the 1926 season. A right-handed batsman, he was part of the Kent side which won the County Championship four times between 1906 and 1913.

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.