English: Portrait c.1870 of Richard Boucher James (1822-1908) from Canowie from the Southern Australia Northern Pioneers' composite, 1850-1859. State Library of South Australia, General Collection, Pictorial Collection, B 6912/H1. Richard Boucher James (1822-1908) was born in Jamaica and arrived in South Australia in 1839 on the Dumfries, along with two brothers, William Rhodes James and John Vidal James. He married in 1848 at Willunga to Mary Le Brun (nee Helmore). Following his purchase, with partners, of Canowie Station in 1856 they lived there until 1863, when the family returned to England. There they purchased a Georgian mansion, Hallsannery, near Bideford, Devon, from where R.B. James continued his interest and management of the Canowie Pastoral Company until his death in 1908. (Information supplied by Max Slee).

The photographic composite image (B 6912) of South Australian pastoral pioneers began as a display of 121 individual portraits, each attached to a board and labelled with the name and location of the pioneer in northern South Australia. The individual portraits are available to view on SA Memory, Foundation of South Australia 1800-1851, 'S.A. Northern Pioneers' along with updated information about the individual people. The composite was compiled in 1908 by Mora Studio, 83 Rundle St. Adelaide. All of the portraits are of a later date than the 1850s decade, but many are considerably earlier than 1908. However, the pioneers pictured were active in the late 1840s and early 1850s era.

The text which features a selection of Pastoral Pioneers of South Australia began a publication of a long series of biographical sketches dealing with the lives of South Australia's Pastoral Pioneers and Old Colonists. The first hundred articles were published in 'Pastoral Pioneers of South Australia, Vol. 1' and the remainder was published in Vol. 2 with a total of 230 articles. Publication began 1 October 1923 and continued weekly until 10 August 1927.[1] He was born in Jamaica and moved to England in about 1865, the 1891 census showing him resident at Hallsannery House, Littleham, near Bideford, Devon with his wife Mary James (born 1821) Isle of Wight. He gave his profession in 1891 as "Land & Stockholder in Australia"