JAMES R. WEBB, LCDR, USN
James Webb '13
Lucky Bag
From the 1913 Lucky Bag:
James Reid Webb
Washington, D.C.
"Jimmy" "Major"
AS a figure in the military world, probably no other man in the class is so renowned as Jimmy. For who else can claim the honor of having attained the rank of Major? The name of Webb is written large in the history of the Washington High School Regrets. The Major has spent a large share of his time at the U.S.N.A. in living on his reputation; he has been known to bone occasionally, but only when on the lee side of a 2.5. Anything that may be proposed will find Jimmy ready for business, particularly if it sounds like a big liberty. He has qualified for a pink N, and is one of the most graceful athletes who appear at the hops in his opinion, a larger percentage of the young officers who have recently graduated should be sent out to China.
As a friend and good fellow, there is no one better than Jimmy; he adapts himself to any company, and the more you know of him the better you like him.
Clean Sleeve—Buzzard
James Reid Webb
Washington, D.C.
"Jimmy" "Major"
AS a figure in the military world, probably no other man in the class is so renowned as Jimmy. For who else can claim the honor of having attained the rank of Major? The name of Webb is written large in the history of the Washington High School Regrets. The Major has spent a large share of his time at the U.S.N.A. in living on his reputation; he has been known to bone occasionally, but only when on the lee side of a 2.5. Anything that may be proposed will find Jimmy ready for business, particularly if it sounds like a big liberty. He has qualified for a pink N, and is one of the most graceful athletes who appear at the hops in his opinion, a larger percentage of the young officers who have recently graduated should be sent out to China.
As a friend and good fellow, there is no one better than Jimmy; he adapts himself to any company, and the more you know of him the better you like him.
Clean Sleeve—Buzzard
Loss
James was lost on March 12, 1920 when he was swept from the conning tower of his submarine, USS H-1 (SS 28) while he was directing abandon-ship operations. The boat had grounded off Magdalena Bay, Mexico, and was being battered by heavy surf; he was the commanding officer.
Other Information
From researcher Kathy Franz:
Born in South Carolina.
James was commander of the First Battalion, Company I, at Central High School. In December 1907, James, as a high school cadet, was a guest at a charity ball at the Arlington Hotel. The Secretary of the Navy and many ambassadors and ministers were in attendance.
In February 22, 1908, he was commander of the First Battalion in the parade honoring General Washington’s 176th birthday in Alexandria, Virginia. Earlier that month, his company sponsored a school dance at the Arlington Hotel.
His father James was a clerk on the Southern Railroad; his mother was Elizabeth. His brothers were William, a pay clerk in the Navy, and Joseph.
From The Washington Times, March 15, 1920:
Commander Webb attended Central High School and was major of the cadet corps there. At his graduation in 1908 he was considered the most popular man ever graduated from that institution. He served a year in the revenue cutter service and later attended the Navy Academy at Annapolis, from which he was graduated in 1913.
During the war he was in command of a submarine which did patrol work off the Azores and since then has been actively engaged in submarine operations for that department of the navy.
The H-1, was bound from the Canal Zone to the Pacific submarine base at San Pedro and was on that leg of the journey lying between Balboa and La Union, Mexico. In anticipation of meeting her husband, Mrs. Webb, left Washington several days ago for San Pedro. … His father, James M. Webb, is the freight claim agent for the Southern Railroad.
James had married Bessie Adelaide Masters on August 9, 1918, in Manhattan.
He has a memory marker in South Carolina.
Photographs
From the 1913 Lucky Bag
From the San Francisco Examiner on March 15, 1920
The "Register of Commissioned and Warrant Officers of the United States Navy and Marine Corps" was published annually from 1815 through at least the 1970s; it provided rank, command or station, and occasionally billet until the beginning of World War II when command/station was no longer included. Scanned copies were reviewed and data entered from the mid-1840s through 1922, when more-frequent Navy Directories were available.
The Navy Directory was a publication that provided information on the command, billet, and rank of every active and retired naval officer. Single editions have been found online from January 1915 and March 1918, and then from three to six editions per year from 1923 through 1940; the final edition is from April 1941.
The entries in both series of documents are sometimes cryptic and confusing. They are often inconsistent, even within an edition, with the name of commands; this is especially true for aviation squadrons in the 1920s and early 1930s.
Alumni listed at the same command may or may not have had significant interactions; they could have shared a stateroom or workspace, stood many hours of watch together… or, especially at the larger commands, they might not have known each other at all. The information provides the opportunity to draw connections that are otherwise invisible, though, and gives a fuller view of the professional experiences of these alumni in Memorial Hall.
January 1914
January 1917
March 1918
January 1919
January 1920
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