He finished fourth in the individual 8,000 m cross-country race, again behind Nurmi, but won a silver medal with the British team.

[2] James and his twin brother John were the youngest of five children of Isabella and Robert Wilson, Scottish migrant workers in England.

James and John were inspired to join the local athletics club by watching the 1908 Olympic marathon race that passed nearby their home.

Later, when World War I broke out, John enlisted to the army and died from peritonitis in 1916, while James stayed at home earning his living as a metalworker.

After the 1920 Olympics he found a job as mechanical engineer at the Neasden Power Station, which provided electricity to the Metropolitan Railways, and semi-retired from running.