Life Story:

Jacques was an agricultural engineer by training, and prior to the war

worked as a farmer on a large farm in the Loire. In 1929 he discovered

jazz music which became a passion, and the following year founded the

Hot Club de France, with Hugues Panassié (who became its president),

Pierre Noury, Pierre Gazères, Edwin Diratz and Jacques Auxenfans.

In 1932 he became the rst jazz commentator at Radio LL, a private

radio station. In 1933, he invited Charles Delaunay and later fellow

agent, to join the Hot Club de France. He also had an interest in art

becoming a neo-dadaist, and in 1937 joined the group Les Réverbères,

which brought together those who had an interest in Dadaism and

surrealism. The following year, he founded the corresponding magazine

Les Réverbères.

At the outbreak of war in 1939 he was sent to Syria but returned to

France after the defeat. In 1941 he joined the group La Main à Plume

with his friend Noël Arnaud. This art collective was formed to keep

surrealism active under the Occupation which had clamped down on

many of the arts. Many of its members went on to be involved in the

Resistance, and eight died at the hands of the Germans.

Jacques also volunteered to join the British SOE where he could put

to use his technical knowledge of radio communications. He joined

the Prosper-PHYSICIAN network, working with them until its collapse

in mid 1943. He was arrested in October 1943 falling foul of the same

betrayal that saw large numbers of his network caught including the

Tambour sisters and Madeleine Germaine. On 14th July 1943, he was

at his Paris home with his wife Reine and two lodgers when the SD