James Stewart Schofield was born in Royton, Lancashire in 1917. He was educated at Repton school and continued his studies at Clare College, University of Cambridge where he attained his masters degree in chemistry in 1939. On graduating from Cambridge, he was employed as a research chemist in the Calico Printers Association Research Department, based in the St James's Buildings in Manchester. He later moved to the research laboratory at Broad Oak Printworks in Accrington. He was appointed the Manager at the CPA's Dinting Vale print works in Glossop in 1952. He took up the same role at Chadkirk Printworks in Romiley, near Stockport, in 1955. From the autumn of 1958, he worked as the Works Executive at the CPA Head Office in Oxford Street, Manchester. By 1969, he was a member of the Board of Directors of the English Calico Industrial Division. Between 1972 and 1980, he worked on a joint venture between English Calico, Tootal, ICI and Storey Brothers in Levenshulme, Manchester, known as Transprints UK Ltd. He retired from English Calico in 1982, but continued his involvement with textile manufacturing through the management buy-out from Tootal of Strines printworks. The company operated under the name Strines Textiles Ltd until it was sold to the Leeds Group in 1992. In 1986, Schofield was awards a Master of Science Honoris Causa by the Scottish College of Textiles. This honour was followed in 1989 by his Honorary Membership of the Society of Dyers and Colorists, where he had been President in the period 1978-1985 and had been awarded a Silver Medal in 1977 and a Gold Medal in 1984.

The Calico Printers' Association Ltd was established in Manchester through the amalgamation of 46 textile printing companies and 13 textile merchants in 1899, in reaction to increased competition within the textile printing market and a decline in quality of goods and profit margins for manufacturers and wholesalers. The amalgamation was an attempt to preserve the tradition and standing of calico printing and to produce textiles of a high standard at reasonable prices. At the time of its inception, the company accounted for 80% of the printed cloth produced in Britain. The company's first chairman was F F Grafton, and the headquarters were located on Charlotte Street, Manchester. The company moved to more suitable premises in Mosley Street, Manchester, and in 1912 built the St James' Buildings on Oxford Street, Manchester. The company also had premises on Princess Street, Manchester, where designers from some of the individual producers represented by the Calico Printers' Association had design studios. As well as representing manufacturers of printed cloth, the Calico Printers' Association engaged in research and development of textiles, including the development of polyethylene terephthalate in 1941, manufactured as Terylene by ICI and now known as PET. By the 1950s, the company had expanded its operations to include spinning, weaving, merchanting, finishing, making-up, and wholesale and retail distribution of textiles, textile engineering, and the manufacture and distribution of chemicals. The company merged with the English Sewing Cotton Company in 1968, and became part of a new organisation, English Calico Ltd.