A recipient of the MC from both the UK and Greece for his actions during World War I, he briefly served as MP for Gloucester, was chairman of Horlicks Ltd and in later life became a renowned breeder of rhododendrons at his island home at Gigha in the west of Scotland.

Born in Brooklyn, New York on 22 March 1886, James was educated at Eton College and Christ Church, Oxford.

It was here that he met King Alexander of Greece and his wife Aspasia Manos, to whom he was later to donate the Garden of Eden in Venice and with whom he remained good friends.

Mentioned in dispatches four times, James was also a recipient of the Military Cross, Greek Military Cross, Order of the White Eagle with Swords (4th class), and the Chevalier Legion d'Honneur and was returned as Conservative member of parliament for Gloucester in the 1923 General Election, which he served until 1929.

In 1944 he purchased Achamore House and the island of Gigha where he set about planting a rhododendron garden that still exists today.