Lieutenant, RNVR
Born: July 25th 1909
Died: March 22nd 1945
Age at Death: 35
Killed in an accident, March 22nd 1945
Michael was born on 25 July 1909 in Highgate, Middlesex, to Russell James, a businessman, and his wife Isabel (née Hindson). At the College he appeared in Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Sorcerer (as one of the ‘women and girls of the village’ according to the school magazine, alongside Harold Hobday, (q.v.)).
During the war he served as a lieutenant in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve. The last ship on which he served was HMS Formidable, an aircraft carrier assigned to the British Pacific Fleet in 1945, and stationed in Sydney. On 22 March 1945, James was on shore leave with some shipmates when they were involved in a road accident, shortly before the ship sailed north to attack airfields on outlying Japanese islands in preparation for a final assault on mainland Japan. He was taken to hospital but later died from his injuries and is buried in the Sydney War Cemetery.