James Bower was the son of Sir Graham Bower (1848-1933), who served in South Africa as Imperial Secretary to the High Commissioner for Southern Africa, Sir Hercules Robinson. The Jameson Raid occurred during his period of office, and perhaps in consequence Sir Graham Bower was appointed Colonial Secretary of Mauritius in 1898, accompanied by his wife Maude. This archive contains letters written from James Bower to his parents, beginning in 1897, when he attended schools in England (initially Cordwalles prep school in Maidenhead, then Clifton School, Bristol). From 1903 to 1906 he studied at Yale University, and he remained in New Haven after graduation to work as a stoker on the trains - though the difficult hours prompted him to give up his position. By 1907 he had taken work with the Nevada Consolidated Copper Company based in Ely, Nevada, moving on to the Steptoe Valley Smelting and Mining Company in McGill, Nevada; one of his letters from this time contains a few photographs of the plant. Many of the letters from 1898-1908 also have their original envelopes, addressed to Bower’s parents in Mauritius.