\"Winston Churchill\'s Military Asst\" Ian Jacob Hand Signed 3X5 Card for Sale

On eBay Now...

\"Winston Churchill\'s Military Asst\" Ian Jacob Hand Signed 3X5 Card For Sale

When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.

\"Winston Churchill\'s Military Asst\" Ian Jacob Hand Signed 3X5 Card:
$349.99

Up for sale a RARE! "Winston Churchill's Military Assistant" Ian Jacob Hand Signed 3X5 Card.

September 1899 – 24 April 1993), known as Ian Jacob, was a British Army officer, who served as the Military

Assistant Secretary to Winston Churchill's war cabinet and was later a distinguished broadcasting

executive, serving as the Director-General of the BBC from 1952 to 1959. Jacob was

born in 1899 in Quetta, Pakistan (then a part of the British Empire). His father was Field Marshal Sir Claud Jacob, in whose footsteps Ian followed by becoming a

professional soldier with the Royal Engineers in 1918, after being educated at

both Wellington College,

Berkshire and the Royal Military Academy,

Woolwich. In 1924, Jacob married Cecil Treherne, the daughter of

another senior army officer, Surgeon Major-General Sir Francis Treherne. The

couple had two sons. Jacob trained as an officer at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich and

later at the Staff College, Camberley from

1931 to 1932, (where he passed the entrance examination with record marks), his

fellow students there including Brian Horrocks, Sidney Kirkman, Frank

Simpson, Cameron Nicholson, Arthur Dowler, Nevil Brownjohn, and Thomas Rees. He also studied

at Kings College, Cambridge. Jacob served as the Military

Assistant Secretary to the War Cabinet for the duration of the Second World War (he actually asked to be returned to his

regiment in 1940, but was refused). He worked closely with Winston Churchill

and implemented Churchill's communications during his thirteen wartime journeys

outside the United Kingdom. Churchill

valued Jacob's efforts enough to endorse his promotion from the rank of colonel to lieutenant general over

the course of the war. As a brigadier (war-substantive lieutenant-colonel),

Jacob was promoted to the substantive rank of colonel in the Regular Army on 30

June 1943. He was granted the acting rank of major-general

on 8 September 1944 and advanced to temporary major-general on 8 September

1945. In the 1944 Birthday Honours, he was appointed

a Companion in the Military Division of the Order of the Bath (CB). As Jacob had never been in

command of troops, he had few prospects for serious work in the forces after

the war and sought to make use of his experience in communications. Indeed, he

was one of a number of wartime information service staff who moved into

broadcasting after 1945. Jacob retired from the Army on 1 July 1946 with the

honorary rank of major-general. By the

end of the war, the BBC's European Service (later the BBC World Service), based at Bush House, had become the world's most respected and

sophisticated foreign language broadcasting operation and had been admired for

its contribution to the war effort. After the war, however, its significance

was greatly reduced and its future in some doubt. The departing head of the

service, Sir Ivone Kirkpatrick (who

would become the Chairman of the Independent Television

Authority a decade later), recommended Jacob as a potential

successor. Sir William Haley, the

BBC's Director-General, had already met Jacob during preparations to report the

news of the D-Day landings and was aware that his political contacts

(Churchill in particular) could be valuable. He heeded and Jacob was duly appointed Controller of the European Service

following his retirement from the Army. Jacob accepted the post shortly after

receiving a knighthood for his work with the war cabinet. In 1947, Haley

decided to rationalise the BBC's overlapping European and Overseas services

into a single operation. Jacob's successful management of Bush House led to his

being appointed Director of the reconstructed Overseas service in which post he

continued until 1951. In February 1950, he helped to establish the European Broadcasting

Union (responsible for the Eurovision Song Contest and

similar events) and served as its first President until 1960. Churchill was

re-elected in 1951 and in addition to being Prime Minister, he also took the

office of Secretary of State for Defence. He immediately asked for William

Haley to second Jacob from the BBC to reprise his advisory role, this time

under the title of Chief Staff Officer. After a single visit to the United States of America and Canada, Churchill had realised that the Defence portfolio was

relatively dull during peacetime; he left the post and appointed Field

Marshal the Earl Alexander as his replacement. Jacob was less

comfortable working for Alexander than for Churchill, but a new opportunity

arose for him in June 1952, when Haley announced he was to leave the BBC to

become editor of The Times.