James William Jones was a merchant, realtor and political figure in British Columbia

British Columbia

British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...

, Canada. He represented South Okanagan

South Okanagan

South Okanagan was a provincial electoral district in the Canadian province of British Columbia beginning with the election of 1916. Following the 1975 election boundary revisions accompanied the riding's renaming to Okanagan South...

 from 1916 to 1933 in the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia

Legislative Assembly of British Columbia

The Legislative Assembly of British Columbia is one of two components of the Parliament of British Columbia, the provincial parliament ....

 as a Conservative

British Columbia Conservative Party

The British Columbia Conservative Party is a political party in British Columbia, Canada. First elected as the government in 1903, the party went into decline after 1933...

.

He was born in Utica, Ontario, the son of James Jones and Tryphenin Searles, and was educated in Uxbridge

Uxbridge, Ontario

Uxbridge is a township in south-central Ontario, Canada, in the Regional Municipality of Durham, in the Greater Toronto Area.The main centre in the township is the namesake community of Uxbridge...

 and Port Perry

Port Perry, Ontario

Port Perry is a community located in Scugog Township, Durham Region, Ontario, Canada. The town is located east of Uxbridge and southwest of Peterborough. Many residents commute to Toronto on a daily basis. Port Perry's municipal website reported a population of just over 9,500 in 2010.Port Perry...

. Jones moved to Grenfell, Saskatchewan

Grenfell, Saskatchewan

Grenfell is a town in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. European settlement began in 1882 before the Canadian Pacific Railway reached the site of the town; the post office was established in 1883. It is situated at the junction of Highway 47 and the Trans Canada Highway east of Regina, the...

 in 1886. In 1893, he married Addie M. Bird. Jones and his family moved to Kelowna

Kelowna, British Columbia

Kelowna is a city on Okanagan Lake in the Okanagan Valley, in the southern interior of British Columbia, Canada. Its name derives from a Okanagan language term for "grizzly bear"...

 in 1907. He served as mayor of Kelowna from 1912 to 1917. Jones was speaker for the assembly

Speaker of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia

The Speaker of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia is the presiding officer of the British Columbia legislature.-The office of Speaker in British Columbia:...

 from 1929 to 1930 and served in the provincial cabinet as finance minister from 1930 to 1933. He was defeated when he ran for reelection as an independent Conservative in 1933.

In 1933, he moved to Victoria

Victoria, British Columbia

Victoria is the capital city of British Columbia, Canada and is located on the southern tip of Vancouver Island off Canada's Pacific coast. The city has a population of about 78,000 within the metropolitan area of Greater Victoria, which has a population of 360,063, the 15th most populous Canadian...

. Jones died in Saanich

Saanich, British Columbia

The District of Saanich is a municipality on Vancouver Island in British Columbia. It is located north of the provincial capital, Victoria. It has a population of 108,265 people, making it the most populous municipality on Vancouver Island, and the seventh most populous in the province...

in 1954.