OXLEY, James Morrow (1883-1957), known best as an engineer and partner to Alfred H. Chapman of Toronto, was born in Halifax, N.S. on 12 September 1883 and educated at the Montreal High School and the School of Practical Science at the University of Toronto. He worked as draftsman for Dominion Bridge Co. and the Canada Foundry Co. then became a partner in the engineering firm of Chadwick & Oxley, Structural Engineers, from 1905 to 1909. In 1909-11 he was Chief Engineer at the McGregor & McIntyre Steel Works, Toronto, and 1911-15 was partner in the firm of Harkness & Oxley, Structural Engineers. It was in this office that he worked on the structural design for the R.S. Williams Tower (1911) and Knox College (1911-12) in collaboration with Alfred Chapman, the talented young architect responsible for the design of both buildings. After serving with Canadian Expeditionary Forces in France in 1915-18, Oxley returned to Toronto and was invited by Chapman to join him in the partnership of Chapman, Oxley & Bishop, Architects & Engineers, formed early in 1919.
Roy Bishop left that firm in 1922 and Chapman & Oxley continued their very successful architectural and engineering collaboration until 1949 (see list of works under Chapman & Oxley). Oxley was nominated as a Fellow of the Royal Architectural Inst. of Canada in 1950 and made an Honorary Member of the Ontario Association of Architects in 1956. He died in Toronto on 8 October 1957 (biog. and port. in C.R., xxxiv, 5 May 1920, 405; Who's Who in Engineering, 1923, 626; The National Reference Book, 1929, 334-5; obituaries in The Telegram [Toronto], 8 Oct. 1957, 2; Toronto Star, 9 Oct. 1957, 3; Globe & Mail [Toronto], 9 Oct. 1957, 5; R.A.I.C. Journal, xxxiov, Nov. 1957, 456; Engineering Journal of Canada, xli, Feb. 1958, 100). A photographic portrait of Oxley was published in the Daily Commercial News [Toronto], 4 Feb. 1936, p. 1.