Warren Perry - 'A biographical sketch of Lieutenant-Colonel T.B.W. James, DSO (1883-1939) : a Gunner Officer of the Australian Staff Corps', 1990 - Page 4

[Page 4]

But scholarly curiosity of this kind in repect of Lieutenant-Colonel James soon meets with obstacles similar to those met with by Professor J.A. Froude in the writing of his short biography on Martin Luther (1483-1546) . It is not desired to compare Lieutenant-Coloriel James in any way with the exalted personages that J.A.Froude has mentioned in his biography Luther beyond pointing out that the technical problems of biographical writing are much the same however exalted or otherwise the subject of the biobraphy may be. The particular technical problems which J.A. Froude mentioned in respect of his own task were a lack of documentary evidence including observations recored by contemporaries. J.A. Froude's observations have a much wider applicability than he has given them and to persons much less elevated than those he has mentioned. It is ther fore for reasons of this kind only that the subject of Lieutenant-Colonel James has been brought into J.A. Froude's discussion.
In his Luther J.A Froude was prompted to write: "The greatest men, strange to say, are those whom the world has been contented to know the least" and "The lives' of the greatest saints of the Church are little more than legends." Then, by the way of illustration, Froude pointed out that "A few pages will contain all that can be authentically learnt of Raphael or Shakespeare".
Likewise, it could be said without much exaggeration that "A few pages will contain all that can be authentically learnt" too about Lieutenarit-Colonel James.
His command qualities expressed themselves in five main ways as follows: In his devotion to duty; in his consideration for subordinates; in his willingness to help junior officers onwards arid upwards when they genuinely wanted to improve their performance; by the confidence he inspired in others by his mere presence; and by his cheerful personality whch strengthened morale. It has been said that no soldier can do more than his duty although this duty changes in its form end its reporisibilities the higher he rises in the service.