Sir William Milbourne James | |
---|---|
Nickname(s) | "Sir Bubbles" |
Born | Hartley Wintney, Hampshire, England | 22 December 1881
Died | 17 August 1973 Surrey | (aged 91)
Allegiance | United Kingdom |
Service/ | Royal Navy |
Years of service | 1901–1944 |
Rank | Admiral |
Commands held | Chief of Naval Information (1943–44) Portsmouth Naval Base (1939–42) Battlecruiser Squadron (1932–34) HMS Royal Sovereign (1926–27) Royal Naval College, Greenwich (1925–26) HMS Curlew (1919–21) |
Battles/wars | First World War Second World War |
Awards | Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath Légion d'honneur (France) |
Other work | Member of Parliament for Portsmouth North (1943–45) Deputy Lieutenant Surrey (1953–65) President, Union Jack Club (1955–64) |
Admiral Sir William Milbourne James, GCB (22 December 1881 – 17 August 1973)[1] was a British naval commander, politician and author. He served in the Royal Navy from the early 20th century to the Second World War. During the First World War, he was an integral part of the Naval Intelligence Division in its early years.
James was the son of Major W. C. James of the 16th Lancers and his wife Effie, daughter of the painter John Everett Millais. He was educated at Trinity College, Glenalmond, and HMS Britannia.
As a child, James sat as a subject for several paintings by his grandfather, Millais. The most well-known of these is Bubbles, 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, it became famous. The image dogged James throughout his life, and he was regularly nicknamed "Bubbles".[2]
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.[8] Most of his retirement was dedicated to his writings on aspects of British naval history.
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's attitudes to naval affairs in Churchill by His Contemporaries. Other publications on naval matters included:
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The Order of Release, the story of John Ruskin, Effie Gray and John Everett Millais told for the first time in their unpublished letters (1947), a collection of family letters detailing the romance between his grandparents.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 had been married to John Ruskin 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.[9]