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Cordelia James, Lady James of Rusholme

British teacher and justice of the peace (1912-2007)

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionApr 9, 2026
Entity authorityQ76289969 ↗
Source-derived summary

Cordelia Mary James, Baroness James of Rusholme (née Wintour; 30 November 1912 – 12 March 2007) was a British teacher and judicial officer. She served as a justice of the peace and as chairwoman on the report of the Howard League for Penal Reform's Working Party on Custody During Trial. Wintour was the wife of fellow educator Eric James, Baron James of Rusholme, who was created a life peer in 1959. She was an aunt of Vogue editor-in-chief Dame Anna Wintour.

Early life and family

James was born Cordelia Mary Wintour on 30 November 1912 in York, Yorkshire to Major-General Fitzgerald Wintour and Alice Jane Blanche Foster.

On her father's side, she was a great-granddaughter of James Milnes Gaskell and a great-great granddaughter of Charles Williams-Wynn. She was also the great-great-great granddaughter of Sir Watkin Williams-Wynn, 4th Baronet and the great-great-great granddaughter of British Prime Minister George Grenville. On her mother's side, she was the great-great granddaughter of Elizabeth Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire and John Thomas Foster. Her great-great-great grandfather, Frederick Hervey, 4th Earl of Bristol, served as the Bishop of Derry. James was the niece of Sir Augustus Vere Foster, 4th Baronet and a grandniece of Charles Milnes Gaskell.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Cordelia James, Lady James of Rusholme” as british teacher and justice of the peace (1912-2007). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Cordelia, James and Lady.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1912, 2007, 1959—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1912-11-30. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Cordelia, James and Lady providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Cordelia James, Lady James of Rusholme”, the useful work is to connect “british teacher and justice of the peace (1912-2007)” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 9, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q76289969. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1912, 2007 and 1959.

Critical limits

A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

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Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Cordelia James, Lady James of Rusholme” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.