McCombs was born in Treanmore, Mohill, County Leitrim, Ireland, the elder child of George McCombs, a farmer, and his wife, Kate Rourke. He came to New Zealand with his parents in 1876 as a three-year-old. He was educated at Sydenham School and Christchurch East School. A successful businessman, McCombs owned a drapery in Christchurch.
Local political involvement
McCombs was involved in the temperance movement, the Progressive Liberal Association and was a friend of George Laurenson. McCombs served on the Christchurch City Council between 1913–17 and 1931–1933. McCombs contested the 1917 Christchurch mayoral election against the incumbent, Henry Holland, along the lines of win-the-war and anti-conscription. The result was a crushing defeat of McCombs; Holland received 12,177 votes and McCombs received 5,381. Holland retired from the mayoralty in 1919; the election was contested by three candidates: Henry Thacker, John Joseph Dougall and McCombs. Thacker won the contest, and McCombs came last.
Member of Parliament
In the, McCombs stood in Christchurch East as an Independent Liberal candidate; at the contest for Avon he was a Liberal-Labour candidate polling 2,817 votes to the official Labour candidate's 798 on the first ballot. James McCombs represented the Lyttelton electorate for 20 years from the 1913 by-election. McCombs found it difficult to support a family and maintain homes in Wellington and Christchurch on a MP's salary of £8.10.0 a week. Once when rushing to get the ferry home, his suitcase flew open and several rolls of toilet paper fell out. Subsequently, Parliament got toilet paper in paper squares instead of rolls. When Labour's caucus leader Alfred Hindmarsh died during the Influenza epidemic, Labour's leadership was open. McCombs made claim to the title but was opposed by the more militant Harry Holland. The caucus held an election to decide between the two. The result was a tie. After drawing lots, Holland was successful. McCombs had been the inaugural president of the New Zealand Labour Party in 1916. In the following year, he resigned the presidency and his membership of the Labour Party over the state control of liquor issue. After rejoining the party in 1918, McCombs served as Labour's deputy leader from 1919 until 1923. During the 1920s McCombs with Dan Sullivan led the opposition to Harry Holland within the Parliamentary Labour Party caucus attempting several leadership challenges, all of which were unsuccessful. After the confusion following the 1922 general election McCombs was nominated by Holland for the role of speaker, though lost to Reform's candidate Charles Statham 61 votes to 17. The 1925 general election was contested by Melville Lyons and the incumbent, McCombs. The original count resulted in a tie of 4,900 votes each. The returning officer gave his casting vote to Lyons and declared him elected. A recount was demanded, and on 3 December 1925, an amended result of 4,890 votes for Lyons and 4,884 votes for McCombs was determined, with the differences in the counts explained by counting informal votes in a different way. Lyons' election was declared void on 13 March 1926, and McCombs was restored as the holder of the electorate. The had a close result, with McCombs just 32 votes ahead of the United–Reform Coalition candidate, Christchurch civil engineer Frederick Willie Freeman. McCombs held the electorate until 1933, when he died in office. The electorate was then held by his wife Elizabeth McCombs from 1933 to 1935, and his son Terry McCombs from 1935 to 1951.
Death
He died at Christchurch on 2 August 1933 from heart failure, and was buried in Waimairi Cemetery.
