John Richings "Jimmy" James

OBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

(27 October 1912 – 22 September 1980) was a British town planner who was influential in the era following the Second World War, and was Chief Planner at the Ministry of Housing and Local Government from 1961 to 1967. It was said of him that "no-one in post-war Britain matched the range of the beneficial influences of his work" in town and country planning. Wyndham Thomas, "Obituary: Professor JR James", September 1980
/ref> He was born in Stanley, County Durham, and was educated at Wolsingham County Grammar School and

King's College London King's College London (informally King's or KCL) is a public research university located in London, England. King's was established by royal charter in 1829 under the patronage of King George IV and the Duke of Wellington. In 1836, King's ...

, graduating with a degree in geography in 1935. In the Second World War, he worked in Naval Intelligence, providing information on Greece. John Richings James, ''Ancestry.co.uk''
Retrieved 10 September 2014 He worked in London for the Ministry of Housing and Local Government from 1949. He had responsibility for leading the development of new towns at Newton Aycliffe and Peterlee in the 1950s. Tom Heyden, "The era of radical concrete", BBC News, 10 September 2014
Retrieved 10 September 2014 He was Chief Planner to the UK government from 1961, a member of Peterborough Development Corporation, and from 1970 was the first Professor of Town and Regional Planning at the University of Sheffield. "The Man in the Know: Uncovering 50 years of planning heritage", Sheffield University Alumni Magazine, 2014/15
. Retrieved 10 September 2014 He also worked for the United Nations in India, Bangladesh,

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

and the Middle East. He was awarded the OBE in 1956, and became a

Companion of the Order of the Bath Companion may refer to: Relationships Currently * Any of several interpersonal relationships such as friend or acquaintance * A domestic partner, akin to a spouse * Sober companion, an addiction treatment coach * Companion (caregiving), a caregive ...

in 1966. He was President of the Geographical Association, which had its HQ in Sheffield at the time, in 1969. He died in Sheffield in 1980 at the age of 67. A collection of almost 4,000 photographic slides left by James, showing major building projects across the country during the post-war period, was digitised and made available online by the University of Sheffield in 2014.

References

External links

The J R James Archive
{{DEFAULTSORT:James, J. R. 1912 births 1980 deaths Alumni of King's College London Officers of the Order of the British Empire British urban planners Civil servants in the Ministry of Housing and Local Government Academics of the University of Sheffield