Julian Thomas

Who is Julian Thomas?

Julian Thomas, LL.D., born John Stanley James, was an English-born Australian journalist and author.

Born John Stanley James in Walsall, Staffordshire, England, the only son of Joseph Green James and his wife Elizabeth, he changed his name to Julian Thomas around 1872 and went to the United States. Thomas took to journalism on the conclusion of the Civil War, and was attached to papers in New York and San Francisco. He was in France during the Franco-German war, and afterwards visited South America, Tahiti, and Hawaii.

Thomas went to Australia in 1874, and commenced the series of "Vagabond" papers in the Melbourne Argus, which created a remarkable sensation, and were subsequently republished in book form. In 1877 he went to the newly discovered gold fields in Northern Queensland, and in the following year proceeded to New Caledonia as war correspondent during the native revolt. He was for some months with the French troops attached to the expedition of Henri Rivière, afterwards killed in Tonkin; and visited the Isle of Pines, being the only journalist ever allowed to land there. In 1879 he again travelled through Northern and Central Queensland.