JACOBS, Cecil John
| Service Number: | 458 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | 18 December 1915, Orange, New South Wales |
| Last Rank: | Corporal |
| Last Unit: | 3rd Pioneer Battalion |
| Born: | Lucknow, New South Wales, Australia, 7 September 1894 |
| Home Town: | Orange, Orange Municipality, New South Wales |
| Schooling: | Not yet discovered |
| Occupation: | Butcher |
| Died: | Natural causes, Killara, New South Wales, Australia, 20 May 1969, aged 74 years |
| Cemetery: |
Northern Suburbs Memorial Gardens and Crematorium, NSW Cremated |
| Memorials: |
World War 1 Service
| 18 Dec 1915: | Enlisted AIF WW1, Private, 458, Orange, New South Wales | |
|---|---|---|
| 6 Jun 1916: | Involvement Private, 458, 3rd Pioneer Battalion, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '5' embarkation_place: Melbourne embarkation_ship: HMAT Wandilla embarkation_ship_number: A62 public_note: '' | |
| 6 Jun 1916: | Embarked Private, 458, 3rd Pioneer Battalion, HMAT Wandilla, Melbourne | |
| 11 Feb 1919: | Honoured Military Medal, "The Last Hundred Days", On the night of 22/23 August 1918, between Company Headquarters east of Etinehem and Battalion Headquarters on the west edge of that village, No. 458, Lance Corporal Cecil John Jacobs was in charge of a section of signallers, maintaining a section of telephone line between Company and Battalion Headquarters. From two hours before zero until the attack was finished, their whole area was exceptionally heavily shelled by the enemy. Throughout the whole time, Lance Corporal Jacobs showed great courage and devotion to duty, and kept his men cheerfully working on the line during the whole night, thus enabling communication to be kept up throughout the whole period of the attack. | |
| 15 Aug 1919: | Discharged AIF WW1, Corporal, 458, 3rd Pioneer Battalion |
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Add my storyBiography contributed by Michael Silver
Cecil John Jacobs was born in Lucknow in 1894 to William Henry Jacobs and his wife Lucy Ann Bell. His siblings were Olive (b. 1890), William (b. 1892), Aileen (b.1896) and Allen (b. 1904). Cecil grew up in Orange and was working as a butcher in Summer Street, Orange at the time of his enlistment in the A.I.F. in December 1915, aged 23.
Cecil was assigned to the 3rd Pioneer Battalion, an engineers and communications unit, and departed Port Melbourne for the battlefields of the Somme, via England, on 6 June 1916 aboard Her Majesty’s Australian Transport ship Wandilla.
Private Jacobs arrived in France in November 1916 and served with the unit until the end of the war, laying and maintaining communication lines. He was promoted to Lance Corporal in June 1918 and was awarded the Military Medal for bravery in the field in August 1918. On 28 August 1918 he was promoted to Temporary Corporal.
Corporal Jacobs returned to Australia in July 1919 aboard the Zealandia.
After his return, Cecil married Mabel Doris Langham at Holy Trinity Church in Orange in February 1921 and worked as an engine driver in the district. Cecil and Mabel were to have five children.
The couple lived for most of their married life in March Street, East Orange. Cecil John Jacobs MM passed away in 1969, aged 74 years, and is memorialised, with his wife who died in 1977, at Northern Suburbs Memorial Gardens, North Ryde.
Credit: Cheryl Scott (McCarthy), May 2014
Source: http://www.theorangewiki.orange.nsw.gov.au/index.php?title=Cecil_John_Jacobs
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