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[Page 6]
Tristram James, like his contemporary in the Australian Staff Corps, Brigadier Francis Bede Heritage (1877-1934) was a Tasmanian. He was born in Hobart on 4 March 1883 - the year in which Sir. J.R. Seeley, the Regius Professor of Modern History in the University of Cambridge, published his bestseller, The Expasnsion of England, At the time of Tristram James birth his parents, Mr. Charles Wordsworth Scantlebury James, A.M. Inst. C.E. and his wife,
Mrs Maude Turton Balfour James nee Crabbe, resided in Davey Street, Hobart.
Chrales Wordsworth Scantlebury James (1850-1927) was born on 18 August 1850, probably in England, and he became a qualified Civil Engineer. He sailed from Liverpool, England on 23 May 1871 in the s.s. Great Britian for Australia where he disembarked at Melbourne on 28 July 1871. At first he set up in practice as a Civil Engineer in the City of Melbourne at 8 Collins Street and he resided at 15 King William Street, Fitzroy. Later he became activley engaged in railway constructional work in Victoria. In August 1879 he was appointed City Surveyor and Director of Waterworks of the City of Hobart in Tasmania. Hobart was an expanding city and soon its increase in water consumption made it necessary to construct an additional reservoir. Mr. James drew up the necessary plans and he supervised the construction of this new reservoir. It was opened officially at a public ceremony on Tuesday 11 September 1888 by His Excelleny the Governor of Tasmania, Sir R.G.C. Hamilton. On the following day a leader in The Mercury of Hobart said "The Engineer, Mr. C.W.S. James deserves very great praise for the manner in which he has carried out a not very easy task" when constructing the reservoir.
Tristram James at this time was five and a half years of age. Then from January 1892 until probably late in 1897 he attended The Hutchins School, Hobart. He finished his schooling late in 1900 at the Guildford Gramrner School, Perth. In that year Tristram James was a Prefect and the future Major- General Edmond Alfred Drake-Brockmari (1884-1949) was the Captain of the School.
At the time of his leaving school in 1900 his parents were residing in Rydall Street, Mullingar, Western Australia.