Researching James Casey

He was the son of the English Variety comedian Jimmy James, and cousin of comedian Eli Woods.

In the 1940s, he and Eli Woods appeared in his father's variety act, known as Jimmy James and Co. After retiring from the BBC in the 1980s, he resurrected the act and toured the surviving variety theatres performing it with Woods for the following twenty five years.

His most notable discoveries during his career at BBC Radio in Manchester, between 1954 and 1982, were the radio comedian Jimmy Clitheroe, the comedian Les Dawson, the comedian Ken Dodd, and the comedy double-act known professionally as Hinge and Bracket, each of whom he launched into a career in radio light entertainment with their own BBC series.

His most successful series for BBC Radio was creating, producing and co-writing The Clitheroe Kid, starring the diminutive comic Jimmy Clitheroe, which ran continuously for sixteen years on the BBC Light Programme and BBC Radio 2, running from 1957 to 1972 inclusive, based on a chance meeting with Jimmy Clitheroe on a Variety bill in 1952.

During the Second World War he served in the ranks in the Royal Armoured Corps from 1941 and as an officer in the Durham Light Infantry from 1944, landing on the Normandy beaches on D-Day with the 9th Battalion DLI in 1944. He was interviewed at length about his wartime experiences by the Imperial War Museum as part of their Durham Light Infantry oral history project.

Casey was born in Tromroe, County Clare, Ireland, the son of James Casey. He was educated at Galway College, and after five years spent in America he arrived in Victoria in 1855, where he joined Angus Mackay in the purchase of the Bendigo Advertiser, and afterwards started the McIvor Times and Riverine Herald.

In August 1861 Casey was elected to the Assembly for Sandhurst, but was unseated on petition in March 1862. After being unsuccessful for Grenville in 1862, in August 1863 he was returned for Mandurang in the Liberal interest, and continued to sit for that constituency until February 1880. In September 1865 he was called to the Victorian bar, and practised with success, being from time to time Crown Prosecutor. From July 1868 to September 1869 he was Minister of Justice in the second James McCulloch Administration, exchanging this office for that of Solicitor-General about a fortnight before the defeat of the Government. The next year Casey was appointed Chairman of a Royal Commission on Intercolonial Legislation and a Court of Appeal. In June 1872 he became Minister of Lands and Minister of Agriculture under James Francis, and held office till August 1875—for the last twelve months of the time under George Kerferd, who succeeded Francis as Premier. Whilst at the head of the Lands Office Casey reorganised the department, and constituted the survey branch on an effective basis. He also checked the system of "dummyism" by instituting inquiries, and subsequently forfeiting the runs and improvements of the incriminated squatters.

He was president of the St Kilda Football Club from 1873 to 1879.

In 1878 he was appointed Executive Commissioner for Victoria at the Paris Exhibition, and was created C.M.G. for his services, being also nominated an Officer of the Legion of Honour by the French Government. The Victorian Hansard was established on his motion, and, when in office, he introduced the system of appointing magistrates to districts instead of for the whole colony. The jurisdiction of the County Courts was, on his initiation, increased from £50 to £250 at common law, and an equitable jurisdiction was conferred on them up to £500. Though still claiming to be a Liberal, Casey assumed an independent attitude towards the second Graham Berry Ministry from 1877 to 1880, and was in consequence ejected from his seat at Mandurang at the general election in the latter year.

Casey did not re-enter parliament, though he unsuccessfully contested Sandridge (now Port Melbourne) in 1883. Casey, who was the first President of the Federal Bank of Australia, was Executive Vice-President of the Melbourne International Exhibition (1880), and in that capacity, and as Chairman of the Great Britain Committee, contributed much to its success. In April 1884 Casey, who is the author of "Casey's Justices' Manual," was appointed a County Court Judge; and in July 1885 he assumed the additional functions of a Land Tax Commissioner, being for a short time in that year an Acting Judge of the Supreme Court of Victoria. Casey married Maria Teresa, daughter of John Cahill and Mary McNamara his wife, of Bendigo; there were no children.

Casey died in St Kilda, Melbourne, Australia, on 5 April 1913.