Victor Jaques.

About Victor Jaques

Brigadier Victor Henry Jaques CBE DSO MC & Bar was a British Army officer. He served during the First World War before becoming a lawyer in Bangkok, Siam, with Tilleke & Gibbins. During the Second World War Jaques rejoined the army. In 1945 he was posted as the representative of Force 136, a British intelligence unit, in Bangkok. One of his key roles was to liaise with the Thai official Pridi Banomyong. The Thai government was technically at war with the Allies, but Pridi was also a leader of the anti-Japanese Free Thai Movement, and Jaques worked to co-ordinate Allied operations with the movement and to plan for future relations. Jaques was hindered by Pridi's distrust of British plans for South-east Asia in the post-war period, as well as various diplomatic incidents. Pridi instead favoured closer relations with the Americans. Jaques remained in Bangkok after the war, both as an army officer and as a civilian lawyer. He played a key role in re-founding the city's British Club in 1947.