Born in Brooklyn, New York on 22 March 1886, James was educated at
Eton College and
Christ Church,
Oxford. While at Oxford Horlick played one
first-class cricket match for
Oxford University Cricket Club against
Yorkshire in 1906, before playing two first-class matches for
Gloucestershire, making one appearance each in the
1907 County Championship and the
1910 County Championship. He joined the
Coldstream Guards at the outbreak of war in 1914, serving in
Salonika. 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. His work as a rhododendron breeder earned him, in 1963, the
Victoria Medal of Honour. He used his experience of the family business to support the island's dairy industry. Inheriting the
Horlick baronetcy from his nephew in 1958, he died at his home in Gigha on 31 December 1972. ==Family==