author
Lionel James
1871–1955
A pioneering war correspondent, this British journalist reported from the front lines of conflicts across Asia, Africa, and Europe, and became known for bold, fast-moving dispatches. He is especially remembered for using wireless telegraphy during the Russo-Japanese War, an early glimpse of modern battlefield reporting.
1 Audiobook
On the Heels of De Wet
by Lionel James
About the author
Born in 1871, Lionel James built his reputation as a war correspondent at a time when foreign reporting was becoming faster, riskier, and more influential. Sources describe him as having worked first for Reuters before joining The Times in 1899, and they trace his reporting through the Chitral Campaign, the frontier wars in India, the Sudan, South Africa, Macedonia, Manchuria, Persia, Turkey, and the Balkans.
He is best remembered for his reporting during the Russo-Japanese War. Contemporary and reference sources credit him with using wireless telegraphy from the SS Haimun in 1904, making him the first war correspondent known to send copy this way from a conflict zone. That mix of field experience and technical curiosity helped make him a standout figure in early twentieth-century journalism.
James also wrote books drawn from his campaigns and travels, including With the Chitral Relief Force, On the Heels of De Wet, The Indian Frontier War, and High Pressure. Some of his work appeared under the pseudonym The Intelligence Officer, and Wikisource notes that he also contributed articles to the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica.