Hugh James (footballer)

John Hugh James MC & Bar (4 May 1890 – 23 April 1967) was an Australian rules footballer who served overseas in the First AIF, who played in the 1916 Pioneer Exhibition Game, and played with the Preston and the Essendon in the Victorian Football Association (VFA), and with Richmond in the Victorian Football League (VFL).

[8] Playing the season with the "Junior" club, Maribyrnong, he played in two matches for the Essendon Association Football Club in the VFA in 1908: against North Melbourne on 8 June 1908,[9] and against Northcote on 13 June 1908.

[11] He made his debut for Richmond, against St Kilda, at the Junction Oval, on 29 May 1909.

Rising to the rank of Lieutenant, he was twice wounded on active duty in France, and was twice awarded the Military Cross for bravery in the battlefield,[16] "making him the most decorated senior footballer of the Great War".

[17] In December 1917 he was awarded a Military Cross: The original recommendation for the award read as follows: In May 1919 he was awarded a Bar to his Military Cross: The original recommendation for the award, dated 5 September 1918, by Lieutenant Colonel William Henry Sanday, read as follows: He returned to Australia on the troopship Rio Pardo,[25][26] arriving in Adelaide on 17 July 1919, and in Melbourne (via interstate rail at Spencer Street Railway Station) on 18 July 1919.