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SKELTON - IN - CLEVELAND
IN HISTORY
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"WE WILL REMEMBER THEM"
2719 Private ISAAC JACQUES.
4th Battalion, Yorkshire Regiment.
Killed in action, aged 28, on the 2nd of May 1915.
Enlisted at Northallerton, N Yorks.
Son of Baldwin and Sarah Jacques of 37 Richard St, North Skelton, N Yorkshire.
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The Menin Gate, Ypres, Belgium.
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FAMILY:-
1901. Isaac, aged 13, was living at 37 Richard St and had been born in N Skelton.
His father, Baldwin, age 55, was an Ironstone Filler below ground and had been born in Dereham, Norfolk.
His mother, Sarah, age 55, had also been born in Dereham.
He had 3 brothers and a step-brother all working in the Mines. Fred, aged 21, and William Claxton, 27, were Tub Fillers.
Thomas was a Horsedriver and young Baldwin, age 15, was a Trapper lad [opened the ventilation doors for the horses to pass].
Isaac also had a sister, Florence aged 19.
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WAR SITUATION:-
The 4th Battalion, Yorkshire Regiment were part of the 150th Brigade, 50th (Northumbrian) Division.
Isaac was an early Volunteer for service in the War.
At the time of his death on the 2nd May, the Battalion had been abroad only since 18 April 1915 and were fighting in the Second Battle of Ypres when the Germans used Gas for the first time.
Full details base on the Battalion Diary can be read starting here.
Pte A E Greenhough, a Brotton soldier of the 4th Yorks wrote home and described how Isaaac lost his life:-
Just a line to let you know that the Brotton boys are in the pink. Sergt-Major Preston was killed in action, which our Company deeply regret.
You will have read of the rough time which we scraped through.
We were in the trenches 6 nights and had a hard time of it, especially on Sunday, when the Germans came forward and they trenched themselves in and then they gassed us, which very near put paid to our accounts.
They first shelled us and then half dazed, they poured a very heavy shrapnel fire on us, which accounted for such a very heavy loss. I got a scratch on the arm.
I had rather a tough time in taking poor Isaac Jacques [a North Skelton lad] from the trenches wounded.
We got him about 100 yards out, when a sniper caught him in the head and put him out altogether.
At Ypres it was hell on earth. Tell them at North Skelton that Tommy Gill died like a hero.
We have been brought 15 miles from sight and hearing of them awful guns for a rest.
MEMORIAL:-
Isaac was properly buried but later shelling destroyed the graves. He is commemorated on the Menin Gate, which bears the names of around 55,000 UK and Commonwealth men who died in the Ypres battles and have no known grave.
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