James became a District Commissioner in Assam India from1940 until 1950, after which India was granted independence in 1947 from Britain. On his journey out to India in 1940, he was torpedoed and had to return to Britain to sail on a different ship. His brother William was in the Control Commission in Germany, serving as an interpreter at the Nuremberg trials, after the Second World War. At the time of writing (2000) only one son James remains at the age of 83 and lives in Linlithgow known to locals as ''Echie''. James was honoured with an MBE in 1947 for his services in establishing independence for India.