James was born on 14 February 1885, in
Danville, Virginia. He graduated from the
U.S. Naval Academy in 1910 and was commissioned an ensign in the U.S. Navy. One of his early assignments was as a
White House naval aide to President
Woodrow Wilson from 1912 to 1913. The following year James had his first taste of combat, serving on the during the
Battle of Veracruz.
Lieutenant Commander James served as Executive Officer aboard the
USS Rochester (CA-2) during
World War I as the ship escorted convoys to and from Europe. For his actions Jules was give a special letter of commendation. Later, during the
70th U.S. Congress, special dispensation allowed James to accept the French
Legion of Honour for his World War I service. In 1921,
United States Army General
Billy Mitchell, an outspoken advocate for air power, led a series of tests off the Virginia coast in which the ex-German battleship and other ships were sunk by bomber aircraft. James served as Chief Censor, given responsibility for censoring what information about the tests were released to the news media. After a tour aboard the
USS Columbia in 1922, James served as assistant naval attache to the American embassies in
France,
Spain, and
Portugal from 1923 to 1926. At times between 1926 and 1934, James was navigator on the ; commanded the , with which he participated in the Yangtze River patrol; served as naval aide for the Governor-General of the Philippines; attended the
Naval War College; and commanded the Destroyer Division 6, Battle Force, U.S. Fleet. In 1933, James was head of the Department of Ordnance and Gunnery at the U.S. Naval Academy. In 1937, he directed the fitting out of the
light cruiser , which he then commanded until mid-1939. From 1939 to 1941, he served as assistant director, and briefly acting director, of the
Office of Naval Intelligence. In 1941, he became commander of the newly acquired U.S. Naval Operating Base on
Bermuda, where he also commanded the combined U.S. and British local defense forces. From May 1943 to September 1945, James commanded the Sixth Naval District, headquartered at
Charleston Navy Yard,
Charleston, South Carolina. In 1945 James received his final assignment, commander of
United States Naval Forces, Mediterranean (now redesignated the U.S. Sixth Fleet) where he served until retiring from active duty in 1946. In addition to being a serving officer, James was an inventor and songwriter. During his time in Bermuda James wrote and published the tune "Traveling High". Earlier in his career he was responsible for the invention of a new type of gunsight for Navy machine guns and a naval mine. James died on March 12, 1957, aged 90 in,
Bethesda, Maryland. ==Personal life==