Rogers received his award for his actions at Thaba 'Nchu in Orange Free State on 15 June 1901 while serving in the South African Constabulary during the Second Boer War.

[3] On the 15th June, 1901, during a skirmish near Thaba'Nchu, a party of the rearguard of Captain Sitwell's column, consisting of Lieutenant F. Dickinson, Sergeant James Rogers, and 6 men of the South African Constabulary, was suddenly attacked by about 60 Boers.

Following the conclusion of the war his battalion returned to Australia, and he received his Victoria Cross from the acting governor-general, Lord Tennyson, on 18 September 1902 at Government House, Melbourne.

[1] Rogers then unsuccessfully sought to obtain a commission in the Australian Military Forces and, after buying and selling a property near Yea, Victoria, returned to South Africa where he worked as detective with the Cape Police until February 1904.

[1] Following the outbreak of the First World War, Rogers was appointed as a lieutenant with the 3rd Light Horse Brigade Train, Australian Army Service Corps.

While living in Kew he had a series of accidents including a fall in his garden resulting in a broken leg for which he was treated at the Heidelberg Repatriation Hospital.