The son of Sir James Glasgow Acheson [1889-1973] was born in India on 12 February 1920.

His mother was Violet Catherine French Field. She married James Glasgow Acheson at the church of St. John the Baptist, Meerut (India) in 1917. He was serving with the Indian Civil Service in Agra and elsewhere. On 3 December 1921, they arrived on the Castalia at Liverpool from Bombay with their three-year-old daughter and one-year-old son, James Glasgow Irwin Acheson. His father was knighted in 1945 on his retirement from the Indian Civil Service.

The younger James was educated at Wellington and Matriculated in 1938. He was at Christ Church for a year before he joined the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve. He was stationed at Bircham Newton Airfield near King’s Lynn, Norfolk with 206 Squadron on general reconnaissance work and was posted missing on 10 October 1940, the same day as another Pilot Officer and two Sergeants from the Squadron.

His name is on the Runnymede Memorial Panel 5.

Solicitor's Notice:

Pilot Officer JAMES GLASGOW IRWIN ACHESON, Deceased.
Pursuant to the Trustee Act, 1925.
NOTICE is hereby given that all persons having any claim against the estate of Pilot Officer James Glasgow Irwin Acheson late of Bircham Newton in the county of Norfolk who died on the 14th day of October 1940 are hereby required to send particulars thereof in writing to Lloyds Bank Limited Executor & Trustee Department the administrators of the estate of the said James Glasgow Irwin Acheson or to the undersigned, the Solicitors to the administrators, on or before the expiration of two calendar months from the date of the publication in which this notice appears, after which date the administrators will proceed to distribute the said estate, having regard only to the claims then notified.—
Dated this 15th day of January 1943.
MADDISON STIRLING HUMM and WILLETT,
2, Clements Inn, Strand W.C.2,
Solicitors for the said Administrators

The Memoirs of Sir James Glasgow Acheson (1889-1973), entitled 'An Indian Chequerboard' (2 Vols.) recalling his experiences in the Indian Civil Service (1913-1917) and the Indian Political Service (1917-1945), are held in the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland, ref. T2419, and the British Library, Asia, Pacific and Africa Collections.