James David Bourchier was born on December 18, 1850, in Baggotstown, Limerick, Ireland.

He was an Irish journalist and political activist. He was educated at Trinity College, Dublin (B.A., 1873). He won a scholarship at King's College, Cambridge, in 1876. He became a schoolmaster at Eton College, where he remained for ten years, despite difficulties caused by his deafness. In 1888, Bourchier left Eton for Romania and Bulgaria, where he acted as a special correspondent for The Times, becoming the paper's Balkan correspondent in 1892. He also contributed occasional articles to The Globe and Macmillan's Magazine. For fifteen years, he was based in Athens before moving to Sofia and working behind the scenes of Balkan politics and negotiations for a generation. He also wrote knowledgeably on archaeology and travel. His sympathy with Balkan nationalism, together with his courage and willingness to identify himself with a cause, won him a unique place in the politics of the Balkan peninsula. In 1915, Bourchier left Sofia and went to Romania, and in 1917, he moved to Odessa and Petrograd to report on the early phases of the Russian Revolution. He was asked to become Bulgaria's consul-general in London shortly before he died of heart failure on December 30, 1920, in Sofia, Bulgaria. James Bourchier Boulevard in Sofia and streets in Varna and Blagoevgrad are named in his honour.