liked challenges", said Zumla. In 1959, with Gordon Beckett and Simon Behrman, he co-founded the Eye Physic Club. From 1963 he was involved in a new medical eye unit which later moved to St Thomas’ Hospital. In 1968, he was appointed as dean to the Royal Northern Hospital. His private practice was at 149 Harley Street. James's lifetime work on sarcoidosis led him to be known as the "King of Sarcoid". History of medicine In 1964 James was elected President of the Medical Society of London. He was inspired by Jonathan Hutchinson, William Osler, and William Harvey. After the death of his wife Sheila in 2001, he wrote daily on the lives of notable medical men and women. His last two articles came were published in The History of Medical Biography. In 1965, he represented the Osler Club of London when he was part of the founding committee of the British Society for the History of Medicine, along with William Copeman, Haldane Philp Tait, K. D. Keele, Douglas Guthrie, F. N. L. Poynter, Edwin Sisterton Clarke and Charles Newman. James was involved in a number of other societies, either as a member or as president, including the Cymmrodorion, the Glamorganshire Society, the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries, the Royal Society of Medicine, the Harveian, the Hunterian Society, the American Osler Society and the History of Medicine Society of Wales. Personal In 1949, James met Sheila Sherlock, later Professor Dame Sheila Sherlock, the eminent hepatologist, at the Hammersmith Hospital. On 15 December 1951 they married and they subsequently had two daughters, Amanda and Auriole. Death and legacy James died on 20 October 2010. Selected publications By 1958, James had written seven papers on sarcoidosis, two being on its effects on eyes, and had published his first book The diagnosis and treatment of infections (1957). In addition, he authored more than 600 papers. In his 1985 book Major Problems in Internal Medicine Vol.24. Sarcoidosis and Other Granulomatous Disorders, co-authored with W. Jones, and published by W. B. Saunders, the clinical and diagnostic findings of James's 818 sarcoid patients covering a period of 30 years, are evaluated. In 1999, with Professor Alimuddin Zumla, he co-edited the standard textbook on the subject of sarcoidosis, The Granulomatous Disorders. Selected articles "The Riddle of Uveitis", Postgraduate Medical Journal (1964) 40, pp. 686–691 "Postgraduate medicine and personalities-1925", Postgraduate Medical Journal (1985)61, pp. 861–864 Books and book chapters References