Born in Ashington, he was the son of Thomas Dobsons Jacques, a miner and Ann Jaques, (née Bircham)[2] A scholarship led him to the Co-operative College, located in Manchester, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in commerce.
[2] 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.
[3] In 1971, he became president of the Retail Trades Education Council, a post he held until 1975.
[3] 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.
[3][6] The Portsea Island Society's store in Fratton Road, Portsmouth is now a Wetherspoons pub and was named "The John Jacques" in his honour.