William Milbourne James
| Sir William Milbourne James | |
|---|---|
Sir William Milbourne James
|
|
| Nickname(s) | Sir bubbles |
| Born |
22 December 1881 Hartley Wintney, Hampshire |
| Died | 17 August 1973 (aged 91) Elie, Fife |
| Allegiance |
 United Kingdom
|
| Service/branch |
 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) was a British Naval commander, politician and author, perhaps most notable for his activities in the Naval Intelligence Division in the First World War.
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 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".
James pursued a career in the Royal Navy, rising to hold a number of important positions. Following his service on the training ship HMS Britannia, he was promoted to sub-lieutenant in 1901 and lieutenant in 1902. He achieved the rank of commander in 1913.
During the First World War he served as executive officer aboard the battlecruiser HMS Queen Mary, leaving the ship a day before it sailed to its doom at the Battle of Jutland. He was flag-commander to Vice Admiral Sir Frederick 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, the Director of Naval Intelligence, eventually becoming deputy director. Hall and James worked together in "Room 40" which decrypted a number of crucial enemy signals relating to the Battle of Jutland, the plans of Roger Casement 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.
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