Born in Islington, North London, Neal was accepted at St Martin's School of Art in 1932, aged 14.
[1] James Neal served in the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers during the war and was stationed at Hull, Beverley and Spurn Point.
After the war he worked as a part-time teacher and graphic arts illustrator in London where he met and married Doreen in 1948.
Ferens Art Gallery in Hull, has twice mounted major retrospective exhibitions of James Neal's varied and diverse work.
In 1985 Beverley Art Gallery held an exhibition called 'Aspects of War in Beverley, 39 - 45' which showed many of James Neal's sketches from his war years in the East Riding of Yorkshire.