James Wise was born in Blackburn in Lancashire on 14 September 1907, the son of Horatio Peter Stanley Wise and Dora Wise.  He was the younger brother of Cyril Herbert Surtees Wise (later Rear Admiral (L) C H S Wise, CBE, MBE).  

He joined the Royal Navy in May 1921. After serving in HMS ROYAL OAK and HMS REPULSE, Wise joined submarines as a Sub Lieutenant in 1929 and joined HMS L12. In March 1930, he was appointed to HMS PERSEUS, which was sent to the China station. After promotion to Lieutenant, he served on the destroyer HMS CAMPBELL and then, in May 1933, he joined HMS SEAHORSE as First Lieutenant.  He later served on HMS OSIRIS and H50, before qualifying for command in October 1936.

His first command was HMS H32 in December 1936 and, after time in the cruiser HMS SOUTHAMPTON, he took command of HMS OBERON as a Lieutenant Commander.  Wise commanded OBERON from November 1939 to April 1940 and was then appointed to HMS ORPHEUS in May 1940.  ORPHEUS was lost between 19 June 1940, when she sent her last signal, and 26 June, when the submarine should have arrived in Alexandria.

James Wise was the husband of Lenore Ann Wise (née Odhams) of Newton, Warwick. He is commemorated on the Portsmouth Naval War Memorial on Panel No. 36 Column No. 3