James was the son of Philip Turner James, a surgeon of Hereford,[1] and Frances Gertrude, daughter of John Bodenham.[2] His father's family was descended from the Gwynnes of Glanbran, Carmarthenshire, described in the nineteenth century as "one of the oldest in the Empire". His grandfather, Gwynne James, was also a surgeon, while his great-grandfather, another Gwynne James, was an apothecary. He was educated at Cheltenham College.[1]
Legal and political career
Sir Henry James, MP, "Nervous" by Ape, Vanity Fair 7 March 1874
In September 1873 James was made Solicitor General by William Ewart Gladstone. Already in November 1873, he was promoted to Attorney General by Gladstone, a post he held until the government fell the following year. He received the customary knighthood at the time of his promotion.[5][6] When Gladstone returned as prime minister in 1880 James resumed this office. He was responsible for introducing the Corrupt Practices Act 1883 and guiding it through parliament.[1] In 1885 he was sworn of the Privy Council.[7]
In 1886, he represented Sir Charles Dilke in the Crawford divorce case alongside Sir Charles Russell QC in which Dilke was accused of adultery with his brother's wife's sister. James and Russell, with disastrous consequences, advised Dilke not to go into the witness box saying there was insufficient evidence to convict him. The judge agreed, but decided Mrs Crawford's confession was sufficient to award her husband a divorce, resulting in an apparently contradictory verdict: that she had committed adultery with Dilke, but he had not with her! Their advice has been called "some of the worst professional advice that any man can ever have received".[8] At a second hearing instigated by the Queen's Proctor, Dilke was cross-examined to devastating effect and his career ruined.
Lord James of Hereford died unmarried in August 1911, aged 82. By his mistress Alice, whom he refused to marry, daughter of Robert Hardwicke (d.1874) of London, he left a daughter Alice Henland (1868–1936), who married Lt. Col. George Talbot Lake Denniss, Royal Wilts. Regt.[13] The barony became extinct on his death.[2] His portrait was painted by John St Helier Lander, collection of Middle Temple; his 1893 photo-portrait by Alexander Bassano is in the National Portrait Gallery. Lord James (Sir Henry James at the time) was also president of Bury Golf Club during the 1890s, during which time a championship trophy was awarded in his honour.[14][15][16]
