Background
Born in Ashington, he was the son of Thomas Dobsons Jacques, a miner and Ann Jaques, (nee Bircham) A scholarship led him to the Company-operative College, located in Manchester, where he graducated with a Bachelor of Arts in commerce.
Born in Ashington, he was the son of Thomas Dobsons Jacques, a miner and Ann Jaques, (nee Bircham) A scholarship led him to the Company-operative College, located in Manchester, where he graducated with a Bachelor of Arts in commerce.
He then went to Low Moorsley as a secretary-manager of its Company-operative Society in 1925. In 1929, Jacques became a tutor at his former school and from 1942 worked as an accountant for Plymouth"s Company-op Society until 1945. He was subsequently chief executive of the Portsea Island Company-operative Society until 1965 and during this time served as President of the 1961 Company-operative Congress.
From 1964, Jacques chaired the Company-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 Company-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 Company-operative peer.
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.
Constance died in 1987 and two years later Jacques married Violet Davies. The Portsea Island Society"s store in Fratton Road, Portsmouth is now a Wetherspoons public and was named "The John Jacques" in his honour.