Educated at St Bartholomew's Hospital, where he gained the Kirkes' Gold Medal in Clinical Medicine in 1871. He was later Clinical Assistant at the Royal Ophthalmic Hospital, Moorfields, and at the Hospital for Women, Soho Square. He then went out to New Zealand and practised in Sydney Street, Wellington. He was Surgeon Superintendent of the Government of New Zealand Emigration Service; and in Wellington was Medical Officer to the Port of Wellington, Surgeon to the Wellington Hospital, and Medical Officer to the New Zealand Railways. He died in 1916. Publications: James's writings included the subjects of Refraction, Fevers in Tropical Queensland, Traumatic Epilepsy, Surgical Treatment of Pyloric Obstruction, and "Odds and Ends" of a Year's Surgery.