[2] In his spare time, he studied foreign languages and other subjects and this helped him develop a career in the iron and steel industry.

[1] It was in the 1885 that Jacks took as a junior partner in the firm Bonar Law, future Conservative prime minister.

[1] In the by-election which followed in August 1886 when Gladstone decided to resume the Midlothian seat he had feared losing, Jacks stood as a Liberal Unionist, but was heavily defeated.

Jacks first literary work, published in 1894, was a translation of "Nathan the Wise" by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing.

[1] Jacks lived for many years at Crosslet, Dunbarton, but in 1901 he purchased the estate of The Gart, near Callander where he died at the age of 66.