JAMES, Charles Dearman (1876-c. 1914) was active in Vancouver, B.C. from 1910 onward, and was employed there as an assistant to Claude P. Jones. In late 1912 he formed a partnership with Bedford Davidson as James & Davidson, Architects (Vancouver City Directory, 1913, 954). Together they submitted an entry in the national competition for the new Winnipeg City Hall. They were one of 39 architects from across Canada who sent in plans (City of Winnipeg Archives, Council Communications, 1913, Box A 169, Item 9741, list of entrants), but they were not among the five finalists, and the Regina firm of Clemesha & Portnall were later declared as the winners.
C.D. James was born in England in 1876 and articled with the Bradford firm of Thomas H. & Francis Healy, Architects in 1891-94. He then worked as assistant to Ernest M.S. Pilkington in London (in 1895-97), for George W. Atkinson in Leeds (n 1897-1900), and for B.F. Simpson at Newcastle-on-Tyne in 1900-05. He opened an office Newcastle-on-Tyne under his own name in 1905 and worked there until late 1909. James emigrated to Canada in February 1910 and settled in Vancouver where he was hired by Claude P. Jones. He joined the Royal Inst. of British Architects in January 1911 while he was living in Vancouver, but he appears to have left British Columbia in 1914 (biog. in Directory of British Architects 1834-1914, pub. 2001, Vol. 1, p. 1009).
(works in England)
NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE, Pearl Assurance Building, Clayton Street, c. 1905
MIDDLESBOROUGH, The Grand Opera House, c. 1907
SUNDERLAND, The King’s Theatre, c. 1908
GREEN SUNDERLAND, public school, (with C.A. Clayton-Greene of Sunderland), c. 1908
WALLSEND-ON-TYNE., The Borough Theatre, 1909 (Builder [London], xcvii, 6 Nov. 1909, 501, descrip.)