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Home Town Danville, VA
Date of Passing Mar 12, 1957
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Jules James, (1885-1957), was a career U.S. Naval officer that served a prominent stateside role during World War 2.
Jules James was born in Danville, Pittsylvania County, Virginia and studied at Virginia Military Institute preparatory prior to entering the U. S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, graduating in 1908. In 1928 he married Eleanor Standish Gamble, niece of U.S. Secretary of War Henry Stimson.
Commissioned ensign in the U.S. Navy in 1910, James subsequently served as White House aide to President Woodrow Wilson (1912-1913), and Assistant Naval Attache to the American embassies in France, Spain, and Portugal (1923-1926).
During WWI LCdr James was Executive Officer, USS Rochester, convoying troops to Europe, during entire War. He was awarded a Special Letter of Commendation for his efforts. At times between 1926 and 1934 he was navigator on the USS Florida (BB-30); commanded the USS Edsall (DD-219), with which he participated in the Yangtze River patrol. Commander Jules James was promated to Captain in 1934. He served as naval aide for the Governor-General of the Philippines; attended the Naval War College, the Naval Academy as an instructor; and commanded the Destroyer Division 6, Battle Force, U.S. Fleet.
In 1937 he directed the fitting out of the light cruiser USS Philadelphia (CL-41), which he then commanded. From 1939 to 1941, he served as assistant director and acting director of the Office of Naval Intelligence. In 1941 he became commander of the newly acquired U.S. Naval Operating Base on Bermuda, where he also commanded the combined U.S. and British local defense forces. In 1943 Admiral James assumed command of the Sixth Naval District, headquartered in Charleston, South Carolina, and the Charleston Navy Yard. In 1945 he became commander of U.S. Naval Forces in Mediterranean waters and retired from active duty in 1946.
Following his naval career, James became a special representative in Europe for the National Lead Company.
Where the Southampton Princess Hotel was built. Before that, it was once owned by Sir Nathaniel Rich, one of the original directors and shareholders of the Bermuda Company, from 1615 until his death in 1636. On 7th April 1941, the American Army took it over. The American leader, Captain (later Admiral) Jules James USN received commendations for his careful and diplomatic handling of the Bermuda Government and the people of the island, unlike the-then Governor of Bermuda.. In another connection with Bermuda, Capt. James was a cousin of Nancy Astor, the first woman elected to the Parliament in London; she was married to a relative of one of the richest men in the world, Vincent Astor, who built a great home on Ferry Reach. (Astor erected the house with his first wife, Helen Huntington, but both likely lost interest in it when the pristine Castle Harbour, their main vista, was destroyed to make Kindley Field). One of the Americans who came to Bermuda at that time was a Captain Charles Beaudry USA, who spent most of the war in Bermuda. He made friends with many Bermudians, and made many pictures of the island, the new military works and Bermuda scenes of the time. Colonel Beaudry donated his photographic collection to the Bermuda Maritime Museum. Along with that of the late Edward Tomasiewicz (acquired by the Museum through the help of Bermudian Spanton Ashdown), it forms a major archive of American activity on the island during the war. By 1939, the several hundred British guns at Bermuda had been reduced to two 6-inch Breech Loaders manned by the Bermuda Militia Artillery at St. David's Battery. Two more such guns were installed that year at Warwick Camp, but with only four weapons island-wide, it was necessary for the Americans to assume the coastal defence of Bermuda and bring in some big guns. Captain Beaudry was in charge of installing some of these pieces, two of which were at Turtle Hill, where a camp, minus any known followers excepting the lucky seven, was soon installed amidst the rolling cedar strewn landscape. On the highest part of the hill, two circular Panama Mounts were built in concrete to take 155mm GPF guns, one appearing inset in a photograph here presented. Similar guns were placed at Cooper's Island, while massive railway guns, mounted on a set of tracks to nowhere, were installed at Scaur Hill and between Forts Victoria and Albert on St. George's Island. A year later, fixed installations replaced the latter and two others were built at Tudor Hill near the Naval Operating Base, where Captain Jules James set up camp at the first American station at Bermuda. At the American Army encampment at Turtle Hill, the facilities included an open-air mess hall. See the surviving Panama Mount gun emplacement which once had a 155mm GPF gun.
