Frederick Alexander James (17 December 1884 – 19 March 1957) was an Australian merchant and litigant. Born at East Marden in

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...

to Thomas James and Emily, ''née'' Pitt, he received a sketchy education and after studying at the Muirden College for Business Training joined his father's fruit business Trevarno, which he and his brother took over in 1910. He married Rachel May Scarborough on 19 October 1910 at Glenelg. After a financial disaster during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

when the brothers were left out of pocket after shipping a quantity of fruit to

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

, they dissolved the partnership and Frederick established new orchards at Berri, successfully dealing in dried fruit from 1920. He stayed out of the Australian Dried Fruits Association in protest at the restrictive sale rules. During this period he also gained extensive familiarity with Australia's

Constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed. When these princ ...

. In 1925 James successfully sold large quantities of his export quota to

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

, but his contracts were annulled when he tried to repeat his feat the following year. He successfully had his quota raised, but on the advice of a solicitor sold more than double his quota to brokers in

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

and

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

, resulting in the South Australian Dried Fruits Control Board initiating legal proceedings against him. The High Court ruled in favour of James, as it was often to do, in ''James v. South Australia'' (1927). He was also successful in ''James v. The Commonwealth'' (1928), but the court ruled against him in ''James v. Cowan'' (1930), upholding the state's right to invoke compulsory acquisition; this was reversed by the Privy Council in 1932. James was involved in many significant legal cases in the 1930s and won most of them. Originally a Country Party member, he left when it embraced organized marketing and, after an unsuccessful attempt to gain

United Australia Party The United Australia Party (UAP) was an Australian political party that was founded in 1931 and dissolved in 1945. The party won four federal elections in that time, usually governing in coalition with the Country Party. It provided two prim ...

preselection, ran for the Senate in 1937 on an

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

ticket, winning 7.9% of the vote. In 1936 his wife initiated divorce proceedings but James persuaded her to settle out of court. She died in 1949 and he remarried Constance Winifred Timothy-Keighley on 19 April 1950. He died at Toorak Gardens in 1957.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:James, Frederick Alexander 1884 births 1957 deaths Businesspeople from Adelaide 20th-century Australian businesspeople