Early life

Ferrier was born in Sydney, son of John Bennett Ferrier, who had worked as both an insurance clerk and an employee of American Tobacco Company, and his Australian-born wife, Louisa Elliott. Jim was raised in Manly, a coastal suburb (on the Northern headland) of Sydney, NSW, and was taught golf as a youth by his father, a low-handicap player, who was born of Scottish descent in Shanghai, China,