James Bright was born in Ireland and served respectively as an assistant town engineer of Germiston, when he was at first named as an acting town engineer and later confirmed as a town engineer (1908–1932, a position from which he retired.
[See: Mäki, Harri. 2011. 'Municipal engineers and local government in the Transvaal before 1910.' The Journal for Transdisciplinary Research in Southern Africa 7(1) July 2011, pp. 119-128.]