As a result of the Scottish system of primogeniture (translation: eldest son gets the farm, the rest have to shift for themselves), James had been forced to leave Arran as a young lad of 14 to seek work in Glasgow. His first job was cleaning windows. Family legend has it that the most welcome present he received from home (the family farm Shannochie on Arran) was a sack of Arran potatoes ('tatties').

Some time later the Scottish firm Mackie Dunn & Co (later W Dunn) in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, sent a letter to their principals in Glasgow requesting the services of 'a likely Scots lad' for their Durban office.

James was sent out and, in the classic Scots tradition, proved himself a prudent, hardworking and gifted business man, rising to become managing director of W Dunn & Co, and chairman of the Johannesburg Chamber of Commerce.

Johannesburg at that time was the gold mining centre of the world: South Africa supplying 70% of the world's supply).