KENNETH CLIVE JACOB

Born 4th March 1912 - Died 14th December 2008

 

 

Baptized Kenneth Clive, my father has always been known as Clive. He was the second son of Colonel Harold Fenton Jacob by his second wife Ellen, born 4th March 1912. In his youth he travelled extensively, including visits to his paternal relations in Canada and his maternal ones in Denmark. He decided to enlist in the army, which he did - as a private. His brother Alaric, a journalist, made mileage out of this by writing a brief article which was published. His mother was none too amused by this, and two years later bought Clive out of the Army. He joined the Territorial Army and when war was declared was called up for regular service. During the war and post war years he served as an officer in the Cameron Highlanders. Regrettably he spent virtually the whole war as a POW, the greater part of the Highland Division being captured after the evacuation from Dunkirk - Clive at St Valery.

He spent the war in various camps, but was later moved to OFLAG VI/B. Some of his letters to his mother can be viewed by clicking on the first letter icon below.

The first thing he did when freed from captivity, when on leave, was to go to Simpsons in the Strand for a slap-up meal, costing 5/- (25P in today's money), rationing notwithstanding. In the post-war period he was seconded to T Force for a period. Ian Fleming, the author, was involved with T Force, sitting on the committee which selected targets. Clive's brother Alaric had been a good friend of Ian's, so possibly he put in a word for Clive, as such an appointment might have been seen as an easy and interesting one. T Force were responsible amongst other things for locating, capturing and escorting German VIPs to England, notably scientists. He met my mother Eleanore Eugenie Ruhrmann, an opera singer from Essen, the younger daughter of Walther and Maria Ruhrmann, at a concert given in Essen. They fell in love and the rest is history.

Clive has two sons Kenneth Walther and Robin Helmut Maria.

Clive and Eleanore divorced in the 1960s. He had been of private means for the first decade or two after the war, but spent much time looking after his mother Ellen during the last years of her life in Warmington, Northamptonshire.

The first sixteen years of Clive's life were splendidly described in his book 'A Distant Prospect - Glimpses of an Itinerant Childhood' (The Jacob Private Press © 2003). Clive wrote a great many letters and articles that have seen publication over the years. The last six years have seen the establishment of the Jacob Private Press and five of Clive's books have so far been published. He was a keen bibliophile and had great literary knowledge, which no doubt came from years of collecting and reading books. Also a keen ornothologist, I was always astonished, when as a child and adolescent on country walks, I found he could identify virtually every British bird from its song alone.

Clive died peacefully on 14th December 2008 at Rake, Hampshire.