John Jacques, Baron Jacques

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}

{{Infobox officeholder

|honorific-prefix = The Right Honourable

|name = The Lord Jacques

|honorific-suffix =

|office8 = Member of the House of Lords
Lord Temporal

|term_start8 = 11 July 1968

|term_end8 = 20 December 1995
Life Peerage

|birth_date = 11 January 1905

|death_date = 20 December 1995
(aged 90)

|spouse =

|party = Labour Co-operative

|children =

|nationality =

|alma_mater = Co-operative College

}}

John Henry Jacques, Baron Jacques (11 January 1905 – 20 December 1995){{cite web | url = http://www.leighrayment.com/peers/peersJ.htm | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080608045331/http://www.leighrayment.com/peers/peersJ.htm | archive-date = June 8, 2008 | title = Leigh Rayment - Peerage | url-status = usurped | accessdate = 10 December 2009 }} was a British businessman and politician for the Co-operative Party.

Background

Born in Ashington, he was the son of Thomas Dobsons Jacques, a miner and Ann Jaques, (née Bircham){{cite book | isbn = 0-905702-11-5 | title = Dod's Parliamentary Companion | date = 1986 | publisher = Dod's Parliamentary Companion Ltd. | pages = 146 | author = Charles Roger Dod and Robert Phipps Dod }} A scholarship led him to the Co-operative College, located in Manchester, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in commerce. He then went to Low Moorsley as a secretary-manager of its Co-operative Society in 1925.

Career

In 1929, Jacques became a tutor at his former school and from 1942 worked as an accountant for Plymouth's Co-op Society until 1945. He was subsequently chief executive of the Portsea Island Co-operative Society until 1965 and during this time served as President of the 1961 Co-operative Congress.{{cite web|url=http://archive.co-op.ac.uk/downloadFiles/congressPresidentstable.pdf |title=National Co-operative Archive - Congress Presidents 1869-2002 |format=pdf |date=February 2002 |accessdate=10 May 2008 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20080528100558/http://archive.co-op.ac.uk/downloadFiles/congressPresidentstable.pdf |archivedate=28 May 2008 }} From 1964, Jacques chaired the Co-operative Union, retiring after six years. In 1971, he became president of the Retail Trades Education Council, a post he held until 1975.

In recognition of his services to the Co-operative movement, on 11 July 1968 he received a life peerage with the title Baron Jacques, of Portsea Island, in the County of Hampshire, sitting as a Labour Co-operative peer.{{London Gazette | issue = 44631 |page=7695 | date = 11 July 1968 }} After some years in the House of Lords, Jacques was appointed a Lord-in-waiting in 1974, however was replaced three years later. In 1977, he became a Deputy Chairman of Committees until 1985. He served as Lord-in-Waiting again in 1979, shortly before Labour's defeat by the Conservative Party.

Family

Jacques and Constance White were married in 1929 and had two sons and a daughter. Constance died in 1987 and two years later Jacques married Violet Davies.{{cite news | last = Gallacher | first = John | title = Obituary - Lord Jacques | newspaper = The Independent | date = 22 December 1995 | url = https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-lord-jacques-1526935.html | accessdate = 20 December 2009 }} He died at Portsmouth in 1995 and was survived by his second wife.{{cite news|title=Lord Jacques of Portsea Island: Fighting for co-operation|author=Lord, Graham|work=The Guardian|date=21 Dec 1995|page=11}}

The Portsea Island Society's store in Fratton Road, Portsmouth is now a Wetherspoons pub and was named "The John Jacques" in his honour.{{cite web | url = http://www.jdwetherspoon.co.uk/pubs/pub-details.php?PubNumber=1526 | title = Pub Profile - "The John Jacques" | accessdate = 29 May 2008 | url-status = dead | archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20080728000630/http://www.jdwetherspoon.co.uk/pubs/pub-details.php?PubNumber=1526 | archivedate = 28 July 2008 }}

References

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