Mr James Auld (Delivery Crew) was born at 5 Frederick Lane in Belfast, Ireland on 27 January 1880. He was the son of Archibald Auld, a car driver, and the former Mary Hickey, a millworker who were married in 1877. Coming from a Church of Ireland family, he had an elder sister, Mary, a younger brother William, as well as a younger half-sister, Maggie. 

When James was six years old his father died from typhoid, aged just 30; several years later, in March 1889, his mother gave birth to a daughter out of wedlock, Maggie, whose father is unknown. His mother later died in 1926. By the time of the 1901 census he was the head of the house, earning a wage as a shipyard labourer and living with his two younger siblings at Belfast’s 8 Pilot Street. At the time of the 1911 census James was living alone, then at 29 Pilot Street.

Auld was married in the Church of Ireland Holy Trinity Church on 23 September 1911 to Catherine Killyleagh, both giving addresses at Pilot Street.

Auld, serving as a trimmer, joined Titanic at Belfast for the delivery trip to Southampton where he then disembarked.

John and Catherine welcomed their first son John in September 1912; he would be followed by three more boys; James (April 1915), Thomas (16 April 1917) and Archibald (July 1919).

James Auld’s final whereabouts are unclear.