Frank Linsly James was born in Liverpool on 21st
April 1851, the son of American businessman Daniel James and his second wife Sophia
Hitchcock. At the time of his birth the family were living at 3 Huskisson
Street L8, later moving to Oakwood House, Elmswood Road L17 (now demolished)
and then in the mid 1860’s to Beaconsfield House, Beaconsfield Road L25.
He attended Cambridge University and whilst admitted at the Inner Temple in 1874 he never practised law. upon his father’s death
in 1876 he inherited £100,000 (about £15 million 2023 terms) which allowed him
to pursue his passion for travel and exploration. His first travels were prompted
by the need of his younger brother, William, to winter in warm climates. Trips
along the Nile were followed by visits to India, Abyssinia and Mexico. In the
winter of 1884-85 he undertook a very successful expedition into Somalia,
recounting his experiences in the book The Unknown Horn of Africa. The
trip required him to lead 100 men and over 100 camels across a virtually
waterless waste. In 1886 he took up yachting and sailed far and wide across the
globe in his vessel Lancashire Witch. A Fellow of the Royal Geographical
Society he was held in high esteem by his peers in what was the ‘Golden Age’ of Victorian exploration. He is commemorated
in the name of the three-streaked tchagra (a bird of the shrike family) tchagra
jamesi. A now closed hospital in Cowes on the Isle of Wight was named after
him.
James was killed, on his 39th birthday, by a
wounded elephant in Gabon, West Africa. He was buried in Kensal Green Cemetery but
in 1917 was exhumed and re-buried in the family plot at West Dean, West Sussex.
