Admiral Admiral is one of the highest ranks in many navies. In the Commonwealth nations and the United States, a "full" admiral is equivalent to a "full" general in the army or the air force. Admiral is ranked above vice admiral and below admiral of ...

Sir William Milbourne James, (22 December 1881 – 17 August 1973) was a British naval commander, politician and author. He served in the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...

from the early 20th century to the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. During the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, he was an integral part of the Naval Intelligence Division in its early years.

Family

James was the son of Major W. C. James of the

16th Lancers The 16th The Queen's Lancers was a cavalry regiment of the British Army, first raised in 1759. It saw service for two centuries, before being amalgamated with the 5th Royal Irish Lancers to form the 16th/5th Lancers in 1922. History Early wa ...

and his wife Effie, daughter of the painter

John Everett Millais Sir John Everett Millais, 1st Baronet ( , ; 8 June 1829 – 13 August 1896) was an English painter and illustrator who was one of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. He was a child prodigy who, aged eleven, became the youngest s ...

. He was educated at

Trinity College, Glenalmond Glenalmond College is a co-educational independent boarding school in Perth and Kinross, Scotland, for children aged between 12 and 18 years. It is situated on the River Almond, Perth and Kinross, River Almond near the village of Methven, Pert ...

, and HMS ''Britannia''.

Bubbles

As a child, James sat as a subject for several paintings by his grandfather, Millais. The most well-known of these is ''

Bubbles Bubble, Bubbles or The Bubble may refer to: Common uses * Bubble (physics), a globule of one substance in another, usually gas in a liquid ** Soap bubble * Economic bubble, a situation where asset prices are much higher than underlying fundame ...

'', in which the five-year-old William is shown gazing enraptured at a soap bubble he has just blown. When the painting was used in an advertisement for

Pears soap Pears Glycerin soap is a British brand of soap first produced and sold in 1807 by Andrew Pears, at a factory just off Oxford Street in London. It was the world's first mass-market translucent soap. Under the stewardship of advertising pioneer T ...

, it became famous. The image dogged James throughout his life, and he was regularly nicknamed "Bubbles".

Naval career

James pursued a career in the Royal Navy, rising to hold a number of important positions. Following early service on the training ship HMS ''Britannia'', he was confirmed in the rank of sub-lieutenant on 15 April 1901. He was posted to the destroyer HMS ''Skate'' on 7 October 1902, and promoted to

lieutenant A lieutenant ( , ; abbreviated Lt., Lt, LT, Lieut and similar) is a Junior officer, junior commissioned officer rank in the armed forces of many nations, as well as fire services, emergency medical services, Security agency, security services ...

later the same year, when in November he was posted to the

battleship A battleship is a large, heavily naval armour, armored warship with a main battery consisting of large naval gun, guns, designed to serve as a capital ship. From their advent in the late 1880s, battleships were among the largest and most form ...

HMS ''Venerable'', on her first commission, to the

Mediterranean Fleet The British Mediterranean Fleet, also known as the Mediterranean Station, was a formation of the Royal Navy. The Fleet was one of the most prestigious commands in the navy for the majority of its history, defending the vital sea link between ...

. He achieved the rank of

commander Commander (commonly abbreviated as Cmdr.) is a common naval officer rank as well as a job title in many army, armies. Commander is also used as a rank or title in other formal organizations, including several police forces. In several countri ...

in 1913. During the First World War he served as

executive officer An executive officer is a person who is principally responsible for leading all or part of an organization, although the exact nature of the role varies depending on the organization. In many militaries and police forces, an executive officer ...

aboard the battlecruiser HMS ''Queen Mary'', leaving the ship shortly before it sailed to its doom at the

Battle of Jutland The Battle of Jutland () was a naval battle between Britain's Royal Navy Grand Fleet, under Admiral John Jellicoe, 1st Earl Jellicoe, Sir John Jellicoe, and the Imperial German Navy's High Seas Fleet, under Vice-Admiral Reinhard Scheer, durin ...

. He was flag commander to Vice Admiral Sir Doveton Sturdee, commanding the 4th Battle Squadron of the Grand Fleet in HMS ''Benbow'' from 1916 to 1917. Later in the war he assisted

William Reginald Hall Admiral Sir William Reginald Hall (28 June 1870 – 22 October 1943), known as Blinker Hall, was the British Director of Naval Intelligence from 1914 to 1919. Together with Sir Alfred Ewing, he was responsible for the establishment of t ...

, the Director of Naval Intelligence, eventually becoming a deputy director. Hall and James worked together in "

Room 40 Room 40, also known as 40 O.B. (old building; officially part of NID25), was the cryptanalysis section of the British Admiralty during the First World War. The group, which was formed in October 1914, began when Rear-Admiral Henry Oliver, the ...

" which decrypted a number of crucial enemy signals relating to the

, the plans of

Roger Casement Roger David Casement (; 1 September 1864 – 3 August 1916), known as Sir Roger Casement, CMG, between 1911 and 1916, was a diplomat and Irish nationalist executed by the United Kingdom for treason during World War I. He worked for the Britis ...

, and the Zimmermann Telegram. At one point James ran Room 40 on Hall's behalf. James related some of the events in his biography of Hall, published in 1955. In the inter-war years, James served on the

China Station The Commander-in-Chief, China, was the admiral in command of what was usually known as the China Station, at once both a British Royal Navy naval formation and its admiral in command. It was created in 1865 and deactivated in 1941. From 1831 to 1 ...

as captain of HMS ''Curlew'' and chief of staff to the stations commander-in-chief from 1921 to 1922. From 1923, he was deputy director at the

Royal Naval College, Greenwich The Royal Naval College, Greenwich, was a Royal Navy training establishment between 1873 and 1998, providing courses for naval officers. It was the home of the Royal Navy's staff college, which provided advanced training for officers. The equi ...

, and Director in 1925. In 1926 he returned as

flag captain In the Royal Navy, a flag captain was the captain of an admiral's flagship. During the 18th and 19th centuries, this ship might also have a " captain of the fleet", who would be ranked between the admiral and the "flag captain" as the ship's "Firs ...

of HMS ''Royal Sovereign''. He went on to be Naval Assistant to the

First Sea Lord First Sea Lord, officially known as First Sea Lord and Chief of the Naval Staff (1SL/CNS), is the title of a statutory position in the British Armed Forces, held by an Admiral (Royal Navy), admiral or a General (United Kingdom), general of the ...

in 1927, Chief of Staff to the Commander-in-Chief, Atlantic Fleet, in 1929 and Chief of Staff to the Commander-in-Chief, Mediterranean Fleet, in 1930. In 1932 he took command of the

Battlecruiser Squadron The Battlecruiser Squadron was a Royal Navy squadron of battlecruisers that saw service from 1919 to the early part of the Second World War. Its best-known constituent ship was HMS ''Hood'', "The Mighty Hood", which was lost in the Battle of th ...

, with his flag in . He was promoted

vice admiral Vice admiral is a senior naval flag officer rank, usually equivalent to lieutenant general and air marshal. A vice admiral is typically senior to a rear admiral and junior to an admiral. Australia In the Royal Australian Navy, the rank of Vice ...

on 30 September 1933, and from 1935 to 1938 he was Deputy Chief of the Naval Staff and a

Lord Commissioner of the Admiralty The Board of Admiralty (1628–1964) was established in 1628 when Charles I put the office of Lord High Admiral into commission. As that position was not always occupied, the purpose was to enable management of the day-to-day operational requi ...

. He was appointed a

Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by King George I of Great Britain, George I on 18 May 1725. Recipients of the Order are usually senior British Armed Forces, military officers or senior Civil Service ...

in 1936. From 1938 James was a full

admiral Admiral is one of the highest ranks in many navies. In the Commonwealth nations and the United States, a "full" admiral is equivalent to a "full" general in the army or the air force. Admiral is ranked above vice admiral and below admiral of ...

. During the Second World War, James served as

Commander-in-Chief, Portsmouth The Commander-in-Chief, Portsmouth, was a senior commander of the Royal Navy for hundreds of years. The commanders-in-chief were based at premises in High Street, Portsmouth from the 1790s until the end of Thomas Williams (Royal Navy officer), Si ...

, from 1939. In 1940 he commanded

Operation Aerial Operation Aerial was the evacuation of Allied military forces and civilians from ports in western France. The operation took place from 15 to 25 June 1940 during the Second World War. The embarkation followed the Allied military collapse in th ...

, the evacuation of British troops from

Brittany Brittany ( ) is a peninsula, historical country and cultural area in the north-west of modern France, covering the western part of what was known as Armorica in Roman Gaul. It became an Kingdom of Brittany, independent kingdom and then a Duch ...

and

Normandy Normandy (; or ) is a geographical and cultural region in northwestern Europe, roughly coextensive with the historical Duchy of Normandy. Normandy comprises Normandy (administrative region), mainland Normandy (a part of France) and insular N ...

, a parallel operation to the

Dunkirk evacuation The Dunkirk evacuation, codenamed Operation Dynamo and also known as the Miracle of Dunkirk, or just Dunkirk, was the evacuation of more than 338,000 Allied soldiers during the Second World War from the beaches and harbour of Dunkirk, in the ...

. In 1942 he was appointed as Chief of Naval Information, in charge of coordinating naval publicity. James was elected in 1943 as

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civiliza ...

Member of Parliament for the constituency of Portsmouth North, which he held until 1945. He retired from the Navy in 1944.

Retirement

Following his retirement from public life, James was active in support for ventures relating to seafaring, supporting clubs such as the Elie and Earlsferry Sailing Club, which named their dinghy ''Bubbles'' in his honour. Most of his retirement was dedicated to his writings on aspects of British naval history.

Writings

In addition to his biography of Hall, he published books and articles on other aspects of his wartime experiences, including an account of

Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 1874 – 24 January 1965) was a British statesman, military officer, and writer who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945 (Winston Churchill in the Second World War, ...

's attitudes to naval affairs in ''Churchill by His Contemporaries''. Other publications on naval matters included: *''New battleship organisations and notes for Executive Officers'' (1916) *''Songs of the sailor men'' (1916) *''The British Navy in adversity: a study of the American War of Independence'' (1926) *''Blue water and green fields'' (1939) *''Admiral Sir William Fisher'' (1943) *''The Portsmouth letters'' (1946) *''The British Navies in the Second World War'' (1946) *''The durable monument: Horatio Nelson'' (1948) *''The influence of sea power on the history of the British people'' (1948) *''Old oak : the life of Sir John Jervis, Earl of Vincent'' (1950) *''The sky was always blue'' (1951) *''The eyes of the navy: a biographical study of Admiral Sir Reginald Hall'' (1955) *''A great seaman: the life of Admiral of the Fleet Sir Henry Oliver'' (1956) His most notable non-Naval publication was ''The Order of Release, the story of John Ruskin, Effie Gray and John Everett Millais told for the first time in their unpublished letters'' (1947), a collection of family letters detailing the romance between his grandparents. His grandmother

Effie Gray Euphemia Chalmers Millais, Lady Millais (''née'' Gray; 7 May 1828 – 23 December 1897) was a Scottish artists' model and writer who was married to Pre-Raphaelite painter John Everett Millais. She had previously married the art critic John R ...

had been married to

John Ruskin John Ruskin (8 February 1819 20 January 1900) was an English polymath a writer, lecturer, art historian, art critic, draughtsman and philanthropist of the Victorian era. He wrote on subjects as varied as art, architecture, Critique of politic ...

when she fell in love with Millais. Her first marriage was annulled, due to non-consummation. James was the first to publish the full details of these events and to vindicate his grandmother, whose victimisation by the Ruskin family he documented. James's book has been the inspiration for at least two plays.''The Order of Release''
.

References

External links

* , - , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:James, William Milbourne 1881 births 1973 deaths Royal Navy admirals Royal Navy admirals of World War II UK MPs 1935–1945 Knights Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath British recipients of the Legion of Honour People from Hartley Wintney Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies People educated at Glenalmond College Royal Navy officers of World War I People from Elie and Earlsferry Lords of the Admiralty Military personnel from Hampshire