James Black Fulton was born in Fenwick, Ayrshire, Scotland on 11 August 1875 and was articled to William Forsyth McGibbon (c.1857-1923) in Glasgow from 1890 to 1895. He also attended Glasgow School of Art and Glasgow Technical College. After completing his articles he worked as an assistant to John Honeyman (1851-1914) and John Keppie (1862-1945) of Honeyman & Keppie in Glasgow from 1895 to 1897; to David Barclay Niven (1864-1942) and Herbert Hardy Wigglesworth (1866-1949) of Niven & Wigglesworth in London from 1897 to c. 1901; to John McKean Brydon (1840-1901) in London from c.1897 to 1901; to James Glen Sivewright Gibson (1861-1951) in London from c.1901 to c.1903; and to Aston Webb (1849-1930) in London from c.1901 to c.1903. During this period he also attended the Royal Academy Schools in London.
Fulton was awarded the Tite Prize in 1899, the RIBA Drawing Prize in 1900, the Soane Medallion in 1902, the Grissell Medal in 1903, and the Royal Academy Travelling Scholarship, which financed a study tour of Greece, Turkey, Italy, France, Germany and Spain. He qualified as an architect in 1906 and later that year was elected an Associate of the Royal Institute of British Architects (ARIBA). He commenced independent practice as an architect in London in c.1906.
He was nominated for a Fellowship of the Royal Institute of British Architects (FRIBA) in 1921.
He taught at at the London County Council's School of Construction for many years and in 1920 was appointed Director of of Studies at Glasgow School of Architecture and Professor of Architectural Design at Glasgow School of Art.
In addition to his work as an architect, Fulton also worked as a watercolourist and exhibited at the Royal Academy in London and the Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts.
His address was given as 92 Solon Road, Brixton, London in 1906; 14 Bedford Row, London in 1906 and 1914; and 17, Claremont Gardens, Milngavie, Glasgow, Scotland in 1921 and 1922. He died in Glasgow on 11 April 1922.
In c.1903 Fulton designed buildings for the Kilmarnock Co-operative Society. He also designed a number of pavilions for the Franco-British Exhibition held at the White City in London in 1908. In 1910 he submitted an entry in a competition to design the new National Museum of Wales. His designs are illustrated in British Competitions in Architecture vol. 3, nos. 34-35, March 1911 (pp. 321-326).
Directory of British Architects 1834-1914. Compiled by Antonia Brodie, et al. Volume 1: A-K. London; New York: British Architectural Library, Royal Institute of British Architects/Continuum, 2001
‘Obituary’. The Builder vol. 122, 12 May 1922 p. 727
‘Obituary’. Royal Institute of British Architects Journal vol. 29, 1921-22 p. 412