Commodore Sir William James, 1st Baronet, FRS (c.1721 16 December 1783) was a Welsh-born commander of the East India Company navy, director of the company and politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1774 to 1783. He conducted successful campaigns against the navies of Indian territories.

Please see Commodore (rank) for other versions of this rank.Commodore (Cdre) is a rank of the Royal Navy above captain and below rear admiral. It has a NATO ranking code of OF-6. The rank is equivalent to brigadier in the British Army and Royal Marines and to air commodore in the Royal Air Force. Commodore has only been a substantive rank in the Royal Navy since 1997. Until then the term denoted a functional position rather than a formal rank, being the title bestowed on the senior officer of a fleet of at least two naval vessels comprising an independent (usually ad hoc and short-term) command. (In this case, for instance, a lieutenant in substantive rank could be a commodore for the term of the command.)