Victor Jaques

Early life and career

The records of the British Club note that Jaques was born on 31 December 1896, and attended Thame School in Oxfordshire. They also state that he joined the British Army in 1914, during the First World War. The London Gazette records that he received training in the Officers' Training Corps prior to receiving a probationary commission as a second lieutenant on 16 May 1915 in the 3rd (Special Reserve) battalion of the Royal Sussex Regiment. His probationary period ended on 7 June 1916. Jaques was promoted to the acting rank of captain on 10 December 1916 and to the substantive rank of lieutenant on 1 July 1917. On 15 October 1918, Jaques received the Military Cross "for conspicuous gallantry and dash during a raid on enemy trenches". The medal citation commends his organisation and leadership of the raid, after which he led a patrol to search no man's land for three snipers while under machine gun and trench mortar fire.

Jaques relinquished his acting rank on 21 December 1918 but was appointed again to that rank and command of a company on 7 January 1919. Jaques received a bar to his Military Cross on 15 February 1919 for actions in an attack on a German position north of the Ormignon River on 18 September 1918, during the Hundred Days Offensive. The medal citation notes that Jaques "handled his company throughout with conspicuous ability and displayed great gallantry". Once his unit had reached its final objective, he reorganised his company, as well as, under heavy machine gun fire, platoons in other companies that had lost their officers. He afterwards volunteered to lead two of these platoons forwards to exploit an opportunity and was wounded in action. By February 1919 Jaques was attached to the 2nd (Regular) battalion of his regiment. He served as an aide-de-camp between 4 April and 3 November 1919. Jaques left the army on 1 April 1920, being promoted to the substantive rank of captain.

Jaques became a lawyer, being called to the bar of the Inner Temple in 1924 and leaving for Siam in 1925, where he joined the practice of Tilleke & Gibbins in Bangkok. He served for more than a decade as general counsel to the Siam Electricity Company (renamed the Thai Electric Company in 1939). Jaques learnt to speak the Thai language fluently. Jaques returned to the United Kingdom once, in 1930, to marry Dora Watson. The firm carried out work for the Thai royal family and various government agencies. In 1935 Jaques acted as defence counsel for Phraya Thephatsadin, which led to him being associated with the Thai royalist cause.

Second World War

With the coming of World War II, Jaques left Siam in 1940 to rejoin the army and, on 26 May, received a commission as a lieutenant in his old regiment. He fought with his old regiment in Italy, India and Burma. By 11 January 1945, when he was mentioned in dispatches for his service in Italy, he had been promoted to the substantive rank of major and the temporary rank of lieutenant colonel. Jaques was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire on 19 April 1945 for his service in Italy; by this time he held the acting rank of colonel.

Thailand

By early 1945 Jaques had been selected by Force 136, the Far East branch of the undercover Special Operations Executive (SOE), as their representative in Japanese-occupied Thailand (Siam had been renamed in 1939). SOE officer Andrew Gilchrist notes in his memoir that he was asked whether the job might be too demanding for Jaques. He replied "Nuts. I know Jacques, he's mad enough for anything. If he's offer this job he'll take it. There's only one thing ... is he fit enough? I believe he's got a game leg—a wound from the last war". Force 136 decided that Jaques would be selected, though his injury ruled him out of any parachute drops and meant he would be transferred in and out of the country by sea plane.

Jaques's role was to discuss future operations and post-war relations with Pridi Banomyong, an official of the Thai government. Thailand was technically at war with the Allies, but Pridi was also a leader of the anti-Japanese Free Thai Movement. Jaques, codenamed Brigadier Hector, entered Thailand in Operation Panicle on the night of 27/28 April 1945. Jaques arrived in Bangkok in the company of Tan Chin (Prince Subha Svasti, a rival of Pridi, who had been permitted to return by Pridi's pardoning of political exiles), who had been sent by insistence of the British government. Force 136 had opposed the sending of Subha as it thought the presence of the unpopular royalist would harm relations with the Free Thai Movement. Upon arrival in Thailand Force 136 quickly posted Subha as liaison officer to a remote post on the Burmese border.

There were delays in getting Jaques into Thailand, which meant that the American intelligence service—the Office of Strategic Services—already had a mission to Pridi in place, giving them a distinct advantage. Despite the presence of Japanese forces and the official position of Thailand as an enemy state, Allied intelligence agents were able to travel fairly freely across the country, in full uniform, because of the support of the Free Thai Movement. Jaques, particularly conspicuous by his 6 feet 4 inches (1.93 m) height, found he was able to travel across Bangkok openly wearing his British Army uniform.

Jaques lodged in a house directly across the Chao Phraya River from Pridi's residence. He met with Pridi on 30 April, on a boat that cruised up and down the river to escape Japanese intelligence. Jaques secured an agreement from Pridi that a post-war Thai government would renounce claims on British territories annexed to Thailand by the Japanese. Pridi raised concerns over a Force 136 unit that had been parachuted into the Shan Hills without his permission. Jaques reassured him that the unit was acting only to cut off the Japanese retreat from Burma and had no interest in Thailand. Pridi also sought assurances over post-war Anglo-Thai relations, but Jaques was not authorised to promise anything in this regard. His silence made Pridi suspicious of post-war British intentions in Thailand, and led him to favour closer relations with the Americans.

Post-war

In the immediate post-war period, Jaques served as political advisor to General Geoffrey Charles Evans, who had entered Thailand as the head of Allied forces to supervise the disarming of the Japanese. Jaques was replaced in this role on 7 October by Hugh R. Bird of the Foreign Office, who had been consul in Chiang Mai in the pre-war years.

After the war, Jaques returned to legal practice in Bangkok, being retained by many British firms who were opening offices there. He was one of the first two British lawyers to return to the city. Jaques attempted to reform Bangkok's office working hours, which were set on a British pattern of 10:00 am to 4:00 pm. For around a year Jaques worked from 7:00 am to 1:00 pm, before being obliged to conform to the traditional hours to match those of his clients. He reopened Tilleke & Gibbins in 1946, now its only remaining partner, but retired from the firm the following year. He assigned its trademark business to his secretary Ina Jorgensen, who had safeguarded the firm's interests during the war, and sold the rest of the business to Albert Lyman in 1951.

Jaques also served as director of the Thai Electric Company and the International Rice Company. He helped re-found the city's British Club in 1946 and served as its first post-war chairman. As the club's records were destroyed during the Japanese occupation, Jaques wrote the club's new rulebook largely from memory. He became an honorary member of the British Club in 1951 for his "invaluable and distinguished service". He and his wife, Dora, returned to Britain in 1955 and he died soon afterwards that November.