Alaric Jacob
Encyclopedia
Harold Alaric Jacob was an English writer and journalist
. He was Reuters correspondent in Washington in the 1930s, and a war correspondent during World War II
in North Africa, Burma and Moscow.
in Aden
. He was born at Edinburgh
because his mother Ellen Hoyer, the daughter of a Danish missionary, was brought up in Scotland. As a child he spent time in India and Arabia but was educated in England
. He had a childhood friend in Kim Philby
in Arabia and in Eastbourne
, where they were both educated but at different prep school
s. Jacob developed a stammer which he believed came from his association with Philby, and which was cured in time by singing lessons..
Like several other promising children from Anglo-Indian or military families, Jacob was taken at reduced fees at St Cyprian's School
. George Orwell
had left the school a year previously, and was presented as an inspiration for Jacob to follow. Jacob's first term at St Cyprian's overlapped with Cyril Connolly
's last and Connolly visited and gave a lesson in Jacob's last year. For Jacob it was "...an age of friendships, of excitement on the cricket fields and in school plays, of singing to a receptive audience at concerts, of having a sonnet printed in the school magazine, of winning the Townsend Warner History Prize
." Jacob however, struggled with classic
s and therefore did not enter for a scholarship to public school
. He went on to The King's School, Canterbury
, where he was unimpressed with the standard of teaching and foresaw that he was unlikely to achieve a scholarship to university. Realising he was a skilful writer, he decided to become a journalist. With the encouragement of his father, who had problems paying his school fees, he left school and went to France.
. When he was seventeen his first play was produced at Plymouth
where he started his career as a journalist on the Western Morning News
. His second play The Compleat Cynic was produced at Plymouth in the following year. In 1930, at the age of twenty-one, he published his first novel Seventeen a fictionalised account of his schooldays in Canterbury. By then he had become a close friend of Margot Asquith
forty years his senior who was to become his mentor and a decisive literary influence. At her house he met editors as well as important figures from the Edwardian era. She introduced him to Sir Roderick Jones, the head of Reuters
, and at the age of 21 he was offered a position as diplomatic correspondent for Reuters in London.
During his time in London, with his charm and wit, Jacob moved in high social and intellectual circles. He wrote a play in which the hero was a communist and as a result decided to read Das Capital. In 1934, he married Iris Morley
, daughter of Lieut-Col Chartres Morley. She was a historical novelist and journalist for The Observer
and the Yorkshire Post
. This was at the time of the economic depression and the hunger marches and these stirred up socialist sentiments in the couple. He felt a rapport with the marchers, and concluded that Marx
was about 90% right. In 1936 the Jacob's went to Washington where as a foreign correspondent he was a regular and close contact with U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt
. The Jacob's stayed in Washington until the outbreak of the World War II
, when they returned to London.
. He sailed to Cairo, taking the long sea voyage via Cape Town
. The next two years he spent with the 8th Army in North Africa, initially covering the Siege of Tobruk
and Operation Crusader
. He was withdrawn from Tobruk
shortly before it fell to the Germans, and was posted to Teheran where he received permission from the Soviet Embassy to visit the Red Army
in Azerbaijan
. He returned to Egypt for the first
and second Battle of El Alamein
, and then went to India. In India, he covered Wingate's first 'Chindit
' expedition in Burma and the circumstances of Gandhi's fast. From Persia he went on to Russia for four months covering the Battle of Kursk
and Stalin's counter-attack. He described his experiences in A Traveller's War published in 1944.
After Christmas leave in England at the end of 1943, Jacob set out again with his wife for the Soviet Union in January 1944 on board a ship of the Arctic Convoy. They spent the remainder of the war in Moscow
and covering the advances of the Red Army in Odessa, the Crimea and through Vitebsk
, Minsk
, Poland and on to the fall of Berlin
. He published A Window in Moscow in 1945. His experiences made him sympathetic towards the Soviet regime and he stayed in the Soviet Union
, on and off, until the start of the cold war in late 1947. His wife Iris had become a Communist and her ideas strongly influenced him. He suspected that her membership of the Communist Party worked against him even when they were separated.
In 1949, Jacob published Scenes from a Bourgeois Life
, an semi-autobiographical novel and an apologia for the paradoxes and anomalies of his career. As an English traditionalist he disapproves of "ribbon development
" and the displacement of the old order by the nouveaux riches. He shows his contempt for the pursuit of wealth through industrial capitalism
and his appreciation for the achievements of the Soviet Union. The story is lightened by his amorous adventures but shows marked contempt for Cyril Connolly, wallowing in self-pity in The Unquiet Grave
and other "stay-at-home intellectuals with comfortable jobs in the BBC" while Soviet heroes fought the Battle of Stalingrad
.
monitoring service at Caversham, but in February 1951 he was "suddenly refused establishment rights, which meant he would receive no pension." He complained unsuccessfully to his cousin, Sir Ian Jacob
, who was prominent in the BBC and later became director. Some have attributed Jacob's problems to the fact that his name was on Orwell's list
, a list of people with pro-communist leanings prepared in March 1949 by George Orwell
for his friend Celia Kirwan at the Information Research Department
, a propaganda unit set up at the Foreign Office by the Labour government. Jacob's establishment and pension rights were restored shortly after his wife Iris Morley, who was also included on Orwell's list, died in 1953. Jacob ended up as a senior editor at Bush House when he retired in 1972.
. He had a daughter by his first wife and a son and daughter by his second wife.
Paul Hogarth
described Alaric Jacob as the quintessential English journalist; urbane, yet modest, with a bone-dry sense of humour and a razor intelligence. "He possessed the grand manner of an Edwardian foreign correspondent with an Alan-Clark-like
taste for vintage claret, a good cigar and fine brandy".
Jacob died in the Lambeth
registration district, London, aged 85. Kathleen survived him; and died in Northwood 18 January 2009.
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
. He was Reuters correspondent in Washington in the 1930s, and a war correspondent during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
in North Africa, Burma and Moscow.
Early life
Jacob was the son of Lieutenant-Colonel Harold Fenton Jacob, Indian Army and at one time Political AgentPolitical Resident
In the British Empire a Political Resident or Political Agent was an official diplomatic position involving both consular duties and liaison function....
in Aden
Aden
Aden is a seaport city in Yemen, located by the eastern approach to the Red Sea , some 170 kilometres east of Bab-el-Mandeb. Its population is approximately 800,000. Aden's ancient, natural harbour lies in the crater of an extinct volcano which now forms a peninsula, joined to the mainland by a...
. He was born at Edinburgh
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
because his mother Ellen Hoyer, the daughter of a Danish missionary, was brought up in Scotland. As a child he spent time in India and Arabia but was educated in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. He had a childhood friend in Kim Philby
Kim Philby
Harold Adrian Russell "Kim" Philby was a high-ranking member of British intelligence who worked as a spy for and later defected to the Soviet Union...
in Arabia and in Eastbourne
Eastbourne
Eastbourne is a large town and borough in East Sussex, on the south coast of England between Brighton and Hastings. The town is situated at the eastern end of the chalk South Downs alongside the high cliff at Beachy Head...
, where they were both educated but at different prep school
Preparatory school (UK)
In English language usage in the former British Empire, the present-day Commonwealth, a preparatory school is an independent school preparing children up to the age of eleven or thirteen for entry into fee-paying, secondary independent schools, some of which are known as public schools...
s. Jacob developed a stammer which he believed came from his association with Philby, and which was cured in time by singing lessons..
Like several other promising children from Anglo-Indian or military families, Jacob was taken at reduced fees at St Cyprian's School
St Cyprian's School
St Cyprian's School was an English preparatory school for boys, which operated in the early 20th century in Eastbourne, East Sussex. Like other preparatory schools, its purpose was to train pupils to do well enough in the examinations to gain admission to leading public schools, and to provide an...
. George Orwell
George Orwell
Eric Arthur Blair , better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English author and journalist...
had left the school a year previously, and was presented as an inspiration for Jacob to follow. Jacob's first term at St Cyprian's overlapped with Cyril Connolly
Cyril Connolly
Cyril Vernon Connolly was an English intellectual, literary critic and writer. He was the editor of the influential literary magazine Horizon and wrote Enemies of Promise , which combined literary criticism with an autobiographical exploration of why he failed to become the successful author of...
's last and Connolly visited and gave a lesson in Jacob's last year. For Jacob it was "...an age of friendships, of excitement on the cricket fields and in school plays, of singing to a receptive audience at concerts, of having a sonnet printed in the school magazine, of winning the Townsend Warner History Prize
Harrow History Prize
The Harrow History Prize or the Townsend Warner Preparatory Schools History Prize is a prestigious annual history competition for children at British preparatory schools. It currently attracts around 800 entrants each year.-History:...
." Jacob however, struggled with classic
Classic
The word classic means something that is a perfect example of a particular style, something of lasting worth or with a timeless quality. The word can be an adjective or a noun . It denotes a particular quality in art, architecture, literature and other cultural artifacts...
s and therefore did not enter for a scholarship to public school
Public School (UK)
A public school, in common British usage, is a school that is neither administered nor financed by the state or from taxpayer contributions, and is instead funded by a combination of endowments, tuition fees and charitable contributions, usually existing as a non profit-making charitable trust...
. He went on to The King's School, Canterbury
The King's School, Canterbury
The King's School is a British co-educational independent school for both day and boarding pupils in the historic English cathedral city of Canterbury in Kent. It is a member of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference and the Eton Group....
, where he was unimpressed with the standard of teaching and foresaw that he was unlikely to achieve a scholarship to university. Realising he was a skilful writer, he decided to become a journalist. With the encouragement of his father, who had problems paying his school fees, he left school and went to France.
Writing and journalism
While in France Jacob started writing, returning to England after the General StrikeUK General Strike of 1926
The 1926 general strike in the United Kingdom was a general strike that lasted nine days, from 4 May 1926 to 13 May 1926. It was called by the general council of the Trades Union Congress in an unsuccessful attempt to force the British government to act to prevent wage reduction and worsening...
. When he was seventeen his first play was produced at Plymouth
Plymouth
Plymouth is a city and unitary authority area on the coast of Devon, England, about south-west of London. It is built between the mouths of the rivers Plym to the east and Tamar to the west, where they join Plymouth Sound...
where he started his career as a journalist on the Western Morning News
Western Morning News
The Western Morning News is a politically independent daily regional newspaper founded in 1860 and covering Devon and Cornwall and parts of Somerset and Dorset.-Organisation:...
. His second play The Compleat Cynic was produced at Plymouth in the following year. In 1930, at the age of twenty-one, he published his first novel Seventeen a fictionalised account of his schooldays in Canterbury. By then he had become a close friend of Margot Asquith
Margot Asquith
Margot Asquith, Countess of Oxford and Asquith , born Emma Alice Margaret Tennant, was an Anglo-Scottish socialite, author and wit...
forty years his senior who was to become his mentor and a decisive literary influence. At her house he met editors as well as important figures from the Edwardian era. She introduced him to Sir Roderick Jones, the head of Reuters
Reuters
Reuters is a news agency headquartered in New York City. Until 2008 the Reuters news agency formed part of a British independent company, Reuters Group plc, which was also a provider of financial market data...
, and at the age of 21 he was offered a position as diplomatic correspondent for Reuters in London.
During his time in London, with his charm and wit, Jacob moved in high social and intellectual circles. He wrote a play in which the hero was a communist and as a result decided to read Das Capital. In 1934, he married Iris Morley
Iris Morley
Iris Vivienne Morley was an English historian, writer and journalist.Morley was born at Carshalton, Surrey, the daughter of Colonel Lyddon Charteris Morley CBE and Gladys Vivienne Charteris Braddell. She married Ronald Gordon Coates of the Devonshire Regiment on 10 January 1929...
, daughter of Lieut-Col Chartres Morley. She was a historical novelist and journalist for The Observer
The Observer
The Observer is a British newspaper, published on Sundays. In the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The Guardian, which acquired it in 1993, it takes a liberal or social democratic line on most issues. It is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.-Origins:The first issue,...
and the Yorkshire Post
Yorkshire Post
The Yorkshire Post is a daily broadsheet newspaper, published in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England by Yorkshire Post Newspapers, a company owned by Johnston Press...
. This was at the time of the economic depression and the hunger marches and these stirred up socialist sentiments in the couple. He felt a rapport with the marchers, and concluded that Marx
Karl Marx
Karl Heinrich Marx was a German philosopher, economist, sociologist, historian, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. His ideas played a significant role in the development of social science and the socialist political movement...
was about 90% right. In 1936 the Jacob's went to Washington where as a foreign correspondent he was a regular and close contact with U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt , also known by his initials, FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...
. The Jacob's stayed in Washington until the outbreak of the World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, when they returned to London.
War correspondent
Jacob was in London until May 1941 when he set out as a war correspondent for the Daily ExpressDaily Express
The Daily Express switched from broadsheet to tabloid in 1977 and was bought by the construction company Trafalgar House in the same year. Its publishing company, Beaverbrook Newspapers, was renamed Express Newspapers...
. He sailed to Cairo, taking the long sea voyage via Cape Town
Cape Town
Cape Town is the second-most populous city in South Africa, and the provincial capital and primate city of the Western Cape. As the seat of the National Parliament, it is also the legislative capital of the country. It forms part of the City of Cape Town metropolitan municipality...
. The next two years he spent with the 8th Army in North Africa, initially covering the Siege of Tobruk
Siege of Tobruk
The siege of Tobruk was a confrontation that lasted 240 days between Axis and Allied forces in North Africa during the Western Desert Campaign of the Second World War...
and Operation Crusader
Operation Crusader
Operation Crusader was a military operation by the British Eighth Army between 18 November–30 December 1941. The operation successfully relieved the 1941 Siege of Tobruk....
. He was withdrawn from Tobruk
Tobruk
Tobruk or Tubruq is a city, seaport, and peninsula on Libya's eastern Mediterranean coast, near the border with Egypt. It is the capital of the Butnan District and has a population of 120,000 ....
shortly before it fell to the Germans, and was posted to Teheran where he received permission from the Soviet Embassy to visit the Red Army
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...
in Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan , officially the Republic of Azerbaijan is the largest country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded by the Caspian Sea to the east, Russia to the north, Georgia to the northwest, Armenia to the west, and Iran to...
. He returned to Egypt for the first
First Battle of El Alamein
The First Battle of El Alamein was a battle of the Western Desert Campaign of the Second World War, fought between Axis forces of the Panzer Army Africa commanded by Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, and Allied forces The First Battle of El Alamein (1–27 July 1942) was a battle of the Western Desert...
and second Battle of El Alamein
Second Battle of El Alamein
The Second Battle of El Alamein marked a major turning point in the Western Desert Campaign of the Second World War. The battle took place over 20 days from 23 October – 11 November 1942. The First Battle of El Alamein had stalled the Axis advance. Thereafter, Lieutenant-General Bernard Montgomery...
, and then went to India. In India, he covered Wingate's first 'Chindit
Chindits
The Chindits were a British India "Special Force" that served in Burma and India in 1943 and 1944 during the Burma Campaign in World War II. They were formed into long range penetration groups trained to operate deep behind Japanese lines...
' expedition in Burma and the circumstances of Gandhi's fast. From Persia he went on to Russia for four months covering the Battle of Kursk
Battle of Kursk
The Battle of Kursk took place when German and Soviet forces confronted each other on the Eastern Front during World War II in the vicinity of the city of Kursk, in the Soviet Union in July and August 1943. It remains both the largest series of armored clashes, including the Battle of Prokhorovka,...
and Stalin's counter-attack. He described his experiences in A Traveller's War published in 1944.
After Christmas leave in England at the end of 1943, Jacob set out again with his wife for the Soviet Union in January 1944 on board a ship of the Arctic Convoy. They spent the remainder of the war in Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
and covering the advances of the Red Army in Odessa, the Crimea and through Vitebsk
Vitebsk
Vitebsk, also known as Viciebsk or Vitsyebsk , is a city in Belarus, near the border with Russia. The capital of the Vitebsk Oblast, in 2004 it had 342,381 inhabitants, making it the country's fourth largest city...
, Minsk
Minsk
- Ecological situation :The ecological situation is monitored by Republican Center of Radioactive and Environmental Control .During 2003–2008 the overall weight of contaminants increased from 186,000 to 247,400 tons. The change of gas as industrial fuel to mazut for financial reasons has worsened...
, Poland and on to the fall of Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
. He published A Window in Moscow in 1945. His experiences made him sympathetic towards the Soviet regime and he stayed in the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
, on and off, until the start of the cold war in late 1947. His wife Iris had become a Communist and her ideas strongly influenced him. He suspected that her membership of the Communist Party worked against him even when they were separated.
In 1949, Jacob published Scenes from a Bourgeois Life
Scenes from a Bourgeois Life
Scenes from a Bourgeois Life is an autobiographical novel by the British author Alaric Jacob, first published in 1949.-Summary:The book is an apologia for the paradoxes and anomalies of the author's own career. Jacob had drifted into journalism and become a Reuter's correspondent, first in London...
, an semi-autobiographical novel and an apologia for the paradoxes and anomalies of his career. As an English traditionalist he disapproves of "ribbon development
Ribbon development
Ribbon development means building houses along the routes of communications radiating from a human settlement. Such development generated great concern in the United Kingdom during the 1920s and the 1930s, as well as in numerous other countries....
" and the displacement of the old order by the nouveaux riches. He shows his contempt for the pursuit of wealth through industrial capitalism
Capitalism
Capitalism is an economic system that became dominant in the Western world following the demise of feudalism. There is no consensus on the precise definition nor on how the term should be used as a historical category...
and his appreciation for the achievements of the Soviet Union. The story is lightened by his amorous adventures but shows marked contempt for Cyril Connolly, wallowing in self-pity in The Unquiet Grave
The Unquiet Grave (book)
The Unquiet Grave is a literary work by Cyril Connolly written in 1944 under the pseudonym Palinurus. It comprises a collection of aphorisms, quotes, nostalgic musings and mental explorations....
and other "stay-at-home intellectuals with comfortable jobs in the BBC" while Soviet heroes fought the Battle of Stalingrad
Battle of Stalingrad
The Battle of Stalingrad was a major battle of World War II in which Nazi Germany and its allies fought the Soviet Union for control of the city of Stalingrad in southwestern Russia. The battle took place between 23 August 1942 and 2 February 1943...
.
BBC career
In August 1948, Jacob had joined the BBCBBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
monitoring service at Caversham, but in February 1951 he was "suddenly refused establishment rights, which meant he would receive no pension." He complained unsuccessfully to his cousin, Sir Ian Jacob
Ian Jacob
Lieutenant-General Sir Edward Ian Claud Jacob GBE, CB, , known as Ian Jacob, was the Military Assistant Secretary to Winston Churchill's war cabinet and later a distinguished broadcasting executive, serving as the Director-General of the BBC from 1952 to 1960.-Early life:Jacob was born in 1899 in...
, who was prominent in the BBC and later became director. Some have attributed Jacob's problems to the fact that his name was on Orwell's list
Orwell's list
Orwell's list, prepared in 1949 by the English author George Orwell, shortly before he died, comprises names of notable writers and other individuals he considered to be unsuitable as possible writers for the Information Research Department's anti-communist propaganda activities.-Background:The...
, a list of people with pro-communist leanings prepared in March 1949 by George Orwell
George Orwell
Eric Arthur Blair , better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English author and journalist...
for his friend Celia Kirwan at the Information Research Department
Information Research Department
The Information Research Department, founded in 1948 by Christopher Mayhew MP, was a department of the British Foreign Office set up to counter Russian propaganda and infiltration, particularly amongst the western labour movement....
, a propaganda unit set up at the Foreign Office by the Labour government. Jacob's establishment and pension rights were restored shortly after his wife Iris Morley, who was also included on Orwell's list, died in 1953. Jacob ended up as a senior editor at Bush House when he retired in 1972.
Personal life
After Iris died in 1953, Jacob married again to the British actress Kathleen ByronKathleen Byron
Kathleen Byron was a British actress of stage, screen and television.-Early life:Byron was born Kathleen Elizabeth Fell in West Ham – now in the London Borough of Newham...
. He had a daughter by his first wife and a son and daughter by his second wife.
Paul Hogarth
Paul Hogarth
Paul Hogarth, OBE, RA was an English artist and illustrator. He is best known for the cover drawings that he prepared in the 1980s for the Penguin edition of Graham Greene's books....
described Alaric Jacob as the quintessential English journalist; urbane, yet modest, with a bone-dry sense of humour and a razor intelligence. "He possessed the grand manner of an Edwardian foreign correspondent with an Alan-Clark-like
Alan Clark
Alan Kenneth Mackenzie Clark was a British Conservative MP and diarist. He served as a junior minister in Margaret Thatcher's governments at the Departments of Employment, Trade, and Defence, and became a privy counsellor in 1991...
taste for vintage claret, a good cigar and fine brandy".
Jacob died in the Lambeth
London Borough of Lambeth
The London Borough of Lambeth is a London borough in south London, England and forms part of Inner London. The local authority is Lambeth London Borough Council.-Origins:...
registration district, London, aged 85. Kathleen survived him; and died in Northwood 18 January 2009.
Publications
- Seventeen (1930)
- A Traveller's War (1944)
- A Window in Moscow (1946)
- Scenes from a Bourgeois LifeScenes from a Bourgeois LifeScenes from a Bourgeois Life is an autobiographical novel by the British author Alaric Jacob, first published in 1949.-Summary:The book is an apologia for the paradoxes and anomalies of the author's own career. Jacob had drifted into journalism and become a Reuter's correspondent, first in London...
(1949) - Two Ways in the World (1962)
- A Russian Journey
- Eminent NonentitiesEminent NonentitiesEminent Nonentities published in 1971, is a collection of short stories by the English author and journalist Alaric Jacob.-Background:Jacob was a Reuters journalist in England and America and a war correspondent during World War II. He wrote several novels and recounted his experiences during the...
(1971)