Timeline
1803 |
Born, Cornwall. |
1825
– 1826 |
R.E. (Royal Engineers) 2nd Lieutenant 1826. |
1827 |
Appointed to Ordnance Survey (geological work interested him). |
1845 |
Appointed local Superintendent of Geological Survey of Ireland (on recommendation of Col. Colby). |
1846 |
Resigned. |
1846 |
Transferred to Admiralty, sent to Portsmouth as Superintendent of constructional works in dockyard. Promoted to Captain. |
1847 |
Appointed Member of Commission for inquiring into application of iron in railway structures. |
1848 |
Elected F.R.S. |
1850 |
Returned to Ordnance Survey, divisional headquarters at Edinburgh. |
1851 |
Appointed Associate Juror for naval architecture, ordnance etc – comprising class vii in Great Exhibition. |
1853 |
Sent to Brussels on special service. |
1854 |
Promoted to Brevet-Major. |
1854 |
Director-General of Ordnance Survey. |
1856 |
Arthur’s Seat observations to obtain mean S.G. of the earth. |
1857 |
Appointed Director of topographical and statistical department of War Office (staff combined with Ordnance Survey and placed under James’s direction) – continued till severence of Ordnance Survey from War Department and transfer to Office of Works in 1870. |
1857 |
Promoted to Colonel. |
1858 |
Member of Committee appointed by Council of Geological Society to revise the Greenough Geological Map. |
1860 |
Knighted. James’s principal work – photozincography. Introduced at Ordnance Survey office 1859. Attracted attention abroad. |
1868 |
Major-General. |
1874 |
Lieut. General. |
1875 |
Resigned from Ordnance Survey. |
1877 |
Died at Southampton 14th June. |
Biographies and Obituaries
1878 |
Duncan, P.M. Obituary - Sir Henry James, F.R.S. [In Anniversary Address.]. Proceedings of the Geological Society in Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society. v. 34 p.34-35. 1878 |