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When James Strachey died in April 1967 he was 79 years old. Naturally, there are but few alive now who knew him in a personal way, and it is therefore not easy to find the material for a biographical comment. At the time when his death was announced we were so near to the fact of losing him that I think we did not want to talk or write about him. Perhaps now we can get pleasure from beginning to remember what he was like.
Strachey was the product of what used to be a very definite grouping in English society, the Indian Civil Service. His father was Sir Richard Strachey, G.C.F.I., F.R.S. (b. 1817, d. 1908). He was secretary to the governor of the Central Provinces at the time of the Mutiny.
Sir Richard and Lady Strachey had a large family, 12 children, I believe, two of whom died. The ten who lived, I am told, grouped themselves as if into two generations, with James coming as one of the younger five. I know nothing yet of his early life.
When the time came, James went to Hillboro Preparatory School and there he had as his friend the poet Rupert Brooke. The fact of this friendship gives us a pointer to the nature of Strachey as a boy.
At the next stage Strachey was a success. He was a day boy at St Paul's School, London, and was in the scholarship stream. It seems that he lived up to expectations. From St Paul's he went to Trinity, Cambridge, where I am assured he did absolutely nothing for three years, except of course that he met everyone who was interesting and talked about everything that seemed to him to have importance. I would be surprised to learn that the talk was of politics. The only question was, would he get a degree? and I am told that he was given a p