General Sir James Willcocks, GCB, GCMG, KCSI, DSO (1 April 1857 – 18 December 1926) was a British Army officer who spent most of his career in India and Africa and held high command during the First World War.

He was educated in England and passed out from the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, in January 1878 (having only got in on the third attempt), being commissioned into the 100th Foot in the Punjab.

[1] In late 1879, shortly after being promoted lieutenant,[2] Willcocks persuaded his superiors to send him to the Second Afghan War (although his regiment was not engaged there), where he served as a transport officer.

[4] In December 1887 he was offered a permanent transfer to the Commissariat and Transport Department, but declined in favour of the adjutantcy of the 1st Battalion of his regiment.

[9] On the 23 September 1899 Willcocks is recorded as being aboard the British and African Steam Navigation Company Royal Mail ship SS Bornu, embarking from Liverpool with the destination being Forçados.

Shortly after visiting her alongside the wharf at Front Street in the city of Hamilton, he wrote a letter for the Royal Gazette newspaper (dated 3 September 1918 and published on the front page on 7 September 1918) in which he fondly recalled his passage to India aboard her when he was a subaltern at the start of his career as a military officer.

[31] Willcocks also memorably was carried aloft in the first flight over Bermuda (by a Burgess-built Curtiss N-9H Jenny floatplane (A2646) of the United States Navy from the former USS Elinor) on 22 May 1919 (strictly the second flight: US Navy Ensigns G. L. Richard and W. H. Cushing flew the seaplane from Murray's Anchorage to Hamilton Harbour, where they set down to collect Willcocks, who took Cushing's place in the two-seater).

Willcocks married Winifred Way, the second daughter of Colonel George Augustus Way, CB, BSC, on 29 July 1889, at Calcutta.

[39] The House of Assembly of Bermuda also sent a message to the Governor, on the motion of Major Thomas Melville Dill, MCP, asking that the profound regret of the Legislature and people of Bermuda and an expression of sympathy be sent to Lady Willcocks by the Secretary of State for the Colonies.

Very Happy Xmas and New Year to all in Bermuda-It was with genuine grief I read of the fearful hurricane, which lately passed over your beautiful islands and the great loss of life in His Majesty's Navy.

I wired to the War Veterans for their gathering on 11th November and I mean one day to again visit Bermuda and meet such old friends as may still remember me.