Lieutenant Henry Dallas Jack

 

Jack as a private in the Lanarkshire Yeomanry

 

Henry Dallas Jack was born on 14 August 1892 at 33 Springfield Terrace, Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, the first of four children of mechanical draughtsman Gavin Lambie Jack and his wife Jessie Hamilton Jack (née Hall).

An assurance clerk, Jack enlisted in the Lanarkshire Yeomanry on 6 April 1912 (No.472). He was commissioned as a second lieutenant on 24 September 1915 and posted to the Queen’s Own Cameron Highlanders. He was later transferred to the 2nd Reserve Cavalry Regiment and posted to the 6th Inniskilling Dragoons.

Jack joined the 2nd North Irish Horse Regiment in France at the end of July 1916. The regimental diary includes a number of references to him leading trench digging parties in early 1917:

9 January. Wet. Routine work. The working party under Lt Jack had a quiet day free from shelling.
20 January. Frosty. Routine work. 2/Lt Jack brought the working party up to the Trenches.
30 January. Snowing. Routine work. Trench Party under 2Lt Jack.
20 March. Snowing. Routine work. Trench digging party under 2Lt Jack.

Jack was promoted to lieutenant on 1 July 1917.

In September 1917 the 2nd North Irish Horse Regiment was disbanded and its officers and men transferred to the Royal Irish Fusiliers, an infantry regiment, most being posted to the 9th (Service) Battalion – renamed the 9th (North Irish Horse) Battalion. Jack joined the battalion at Ruyaulcourt on 20 October. However he applied for a transfer to the Indian Army Reserve and left for England on 13 December.

The application was refused on medical grounds and he was instead transferred to the General List of Officers on 27 January 1918. He was classified as a Staff Lieutenant Second Class and worked at the War Office in London until he was demobilised and relinquished his commission on 7 October 1919.

After the war Jack worked for Lever Brothers at Port Sunlight, where Lord Leverhulme encouraged his involvement in the Institute of Cost and Works Accountants - he became a Fellow in 1929. He moved to Williamson's in Lancaster in 1931. By the time of the 1939 Register, he was working as chief accountant at an oilcloth and linoleum factory and living with his wife Esther Alison at Beauchamp Hall Park, Lancaster.

During World War 2 Jack served as a captain in the Home Guard in Lancaster from May 1940 to December 1944, at which time he was awarded the honorary rank of major.

From 1945 he was a member of the Institute of Industrial Administration, served as President of the Institute of Cost & Works Accountants for 1946-48, and was a founder member of The Institute of Management, London, in 1951.

He died at Beauchamp Hall Park on 3 March 1957.

 

Seated, near tree

 

Officer, Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders

 

Cavalry officer, 1916-19

 

Jack (left)

 

Front right

 

Far left

 

Two of Jack's brothers also served in the war. Alexander Lambie Jack served in the Queen's Own Royal Glasgow Yeomanry and the Machine Gun Corps (Cavalry). Guy Lambie Jack served as a lieutenant in the Royal Scots Fusiliers. Only 18 years old when sent to France in April 1918, he was awarded a Military Cross, the citation reading:

In the operations east of Ypres, on the 28th September, 1918, he displayed marked gallantry and ability to command. In the advance east of Ledeghem, on the 14th, after his company commander was wounded, he took command and pushed forward. He worked a platoon round the flank of an enemy light field gun, firing with open sights, and captured the gun. The subsequent leading of his company was in keeping with his previous good work.

 

Alexander Lambie Jack

 

Guy Lambie Jack

 

Images 1, 3, 8 and 9 sourced from Ancestry.com Public Member Trees - contributor 'whit105'. Images 2, and 4 to 7, and some of the information above, kindly provided by Jill Sheldon, Henry Jack's grand-daughter.

 

This page last updated 22 October 2023.