James Radley was the son of a wealthy colliery owner in Lancashire and it is believed he was born at Dunnow Hall at Slaidburn in 1884.
Radley was a close friend of Charles Rolls another aviator and who had been the first to complete a double-crossing of the English Channel
James Radley and business partner William Rhodes-Moorhouse, formed a company called the Portholme Aerodrome Limited in 1911 to design and build aircraft at St Johns Street, Huntingdon. The first locally designed and built aircraft flew from Portholme on 27 July 1911. A year later they were to sell the business to Handley Page but not before Portholme had built the body for Radley’s Ghost to his own design.