James Thomas Donald was born on October 30, 1856, in St. Catharines, Ontario.

He was a chemist, assayer, and mining geologist. He was educated at McGill University (B.A. in Natural Science, 1878 and M.A., 1882). He was asked by Sir. William Dawson to introduce the teaching of science (chemistry and botany) in high schools and he became the first science master at the Montreal High School. He was Professor of Chemistry at the Medical Faculty of Bishop's College, Lennoxville, QC (later merged with McGill). He was also an Official Analyst to the Dominion Government, District of Montreal. In 1889, he opened a commercial laboratory and chemical consulting firm. During World War I, the firm acted as consulting chemists to the Ministry of Munitions in Canada. In 1920, the business was incorporated as J.T. Donald & Co. Limited. His son James Richardson Donald joined the firm in 1922 and subsequently became its President. Donald Inspection Limited, a subsidiary company, was formed in 1926. During World War II, the company was actively connected with various chemical phases of the war effort. Donald often lectured before scientific institutions and contributed numerous articles to various scientific journals, e.g., Engineering and Mining Journal (N.Y.), Popular Science Monthly, and the Canadian Mining Record. He was a Fellow of the Chemical Society and a member of the Society of Chemical Industry and American Chemical Society.

In 1883, he married Elizabeth Willow or Willan (d. 1884) and in 1887, he remarried Evelyn Belliss (1866–). He died on June 11, 1940, in Quebec, Canada