Architect, teacher and artist, married to the painter Anne Redpath, his sons being the artists David and Alastair Michie. James and Anne married in 1920 and lived in northern France initially, where he was employed as an architect by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, tidying up and designing many cemeteries. In 1927, the Michies moved to the south of France, where James worked as a private architect for an American millionaire called Charles Thompson, who owned a large villa on the Riviera, the Chateau Gloria, named after his wife. After World War II, James Michie taught architecture at the West of England School of Architecture in Bristol, during which time he frequently painted. He exhibited in the area, works using a warm palette and signed Michie.