Jules Jacques de Dixmude

Lieutenant-general Baron Jules-Marie-Alphonse Jacques de Dixmude (24 February 1858 – 24 November 1928), often known as General Jacques, was a Belgian military figure of World War I and colonial advocate.

Lieutenant-general

Jules Jacques de Dixmude
"Général Jacques"

GC O. Leopold, Comm. O. Crown, GCMG
Birth nameJules Marie Alphonse Jacques
Born(1858-02-24)24 February 1858
Stavelot, Belgium
Died24 November 1928(1928-11-24) (aged 70)
Ixelles, Belgium
Allegiance Belgium
 Congo Free State
RankLieutenant General
Commands held12th Regiment of the Line
Battles/warsBattle of the Yser

Congo Free State
Alphonse Jacques in the Congo, 1903

He founded Albertville (Kalemie) in the Congo in 1892.

Jacques was known for contributing to the brutality of the Congo Free State rule. After hearing that native Congolese forced laborers were severing vines instead of tapping them as ordered, he wrote to one of his subordinates: "Decidedly these people of [Inongo] are a bad lot. They have just been and cut some rubber vines...We must fight them until their absolute submission has been obtained, or their complete extermination...Inform the natives that if they cut another single vine, I will exterminate them to the last man."[1]

Military career

Congo Arab war
Further information: Congo Arab war and Arab slave trade

From 1886–1892, the Society of Missionaries of Africa had founded catholic missions at the north and south ends of Lake Tanganyika. Léopold Louis Joubert, a French soldier and armed auxiliary, was dispatched by Archbishop Charles Lavigerie's Society of Missionaries of Africa to protect the missionaries. The missionaries abandoned three of the new stations due to attacks by Tippu Tip and Rumaliza.[2] By 1891 the Zanzibari slavers had control of the entire western shore of the lake, apart from the region defended by Joubert around Mpala and St Louis de Mrumbi.[3] The anti-slavery expedition under captain Jacques—financed by the Belgian Anti-Slavery Society—came to the relief of Joubert on 30 Oktober 1892.[4] When the Jacques expedition arrived Joubert's garrison was down to about two hundred men, poorly armed with "a most miscellaneous assortment of chassepots, Remingtons and muzzle-loaders, without suitable cartridges". He also had hardly any medicine left.[5][6][7] Captain Jacques asked Joubert to remain on the defensive while his expedition moved north.[8] On 3 January 1892, captain Jacques' anti-slavery expedition founded the fortress of Albertville on the shores of Lake Tanganyika, and tried to put an end to the slave trade in the region. Rumaliza's troops surrounded Albertville on 5 April and besieged the outpost for 9 months. Eventually Rumaliza's forces had to retreat because of the arrival of the Long-Duvivier-Demol Anti-Slavery expedition, a relief column sent from Brussels at captain Jacques's aide.[9] In 1894 he returns to Belgium, he serves as a colonial official in the Congo Free State from 1895 to 1898 and finally returns to the Congo Free State in 1902 to work on the railway line that connects Bas-Congo to Katanga.

World War I
Further information: Belgium in World War I and Battle of the Yser

Jacques was promoted to major in the Belgian army in 1908, lieutenant colonel in 1913 and colonel in 1914 as he took command of the 12th regiment. He obtained the rank of major general in 1915 and became a three-star general in 1916, taking command of the 3rd army division. Because of his exceptional service during World War I, he was made Baron and received several decorations.

bas reliefs
Kansas City Liberty Memorial. Left to right: Beatty, Foch, Pershing, Diaz and Jacques reliefs.
Generals of WWI: Alphonse Jacques de Dixmude, Armando Diaz, Ferdinand Foch, John Joseph "Black Jack" Pershing, David Beatty.
Statue of Jules Jacques de Dixmude in center of Diksmuide. His coat of arms is shown at the base.

Title, honours and arms

Jacques was promoted to the rank of lieutenant general in 1916 and was made a baron in 1919 by HM King Albert I. In 1924 he was allowed to add "de Dixmude" to his last name.

Military awards and decorations


Commemoration

"General Jacques" is commemorated by several streets, statues, and monuments around Belgium, including the "Boulevard Général Jacques" in Brussels as well as others in Nivelles, Chaudfontaine and Verviers and numerous statues. A bas-relief of Baron Jacques is included as part of the Liberty Memorial in Kansas City.

Arms
Coat of arms of the Jacques de Dixmude family[10]
sans_cadre
sans_cadre
sans_cadre
sans_cadre
Coronet
A Belgian Baron's coronet (for himself and all descendants holders of the title)[10]
Escutcheon
Gules, a fess wavy Argent, accompanied in chief of two swords Argent hilt and pomel Or saltirewise, and in base the letter Y Or (French: De gueules à la fasce ondée d’argent, accompagnée en chef de deux épées d’argent garnies d’or, passées en sautoir, et en pointe de la lettre Y d’or.)[10]
Motto
Je tiendrai (French for I will hold)[10]
Other elements
In French: l’écu surmonté, pour le titulaire et pour ceux de ses descendants qui seront appelés à porter après lui le titre que Nous lui accordons, d’une couronne de baron, et tenu par deux chevaliers d’argent, à la figure de carnation, armés de toutes pièces, la visière levée, ceints d’une épée d’argent garnie d’or, et tenant, celui de dextre un bouclier fascé d’or et d’azur de huit pièces, qui sont les armoiries de Dixmude, et à senestre un bouclier échiqueté d’argent et d’azur, qui sont les armoiries de Merckem, l’écu surmonté, pour ses autres descendants d’un heaume d’argent couronné, grillé, colleté et liseré d’or, doublé et attaché de gueules, aux lambrequins d’or et de gueules, cimier : un chevalier armé comme les tenants issant, ayant dans la dextre une lance d’or à la pointe d’argent ornée d’une banderolle tiercée en pal de sable, d’or et de gueules.[10]

References
  1. Hochschild, Adam (1998). King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa. New York: First Mariner Books. pp. 228–229. ISBN 978-0-618-00190-3.
  2. "Il y a 80 ans, le 27 Mai 1927, Mourait le Captiaine Joubert" (in French). Lavigerie. Retrieved 2013-04-09.
  3. Shorter, Aylward (2003). "Joubert, Leopold Louis". Dictionary of African Christian Biography. Retrieved 2013-04-10.
  4. Ergo, André-Bernard (2005). Des bâtisseurs aux contempteurs du Congo Belge: L'odyssée coloniale. Editions L'Harmattan. p. 43. ISBN 978-2-7475-8502-6. Retrieved 12 April 2013.
  5. Moloney, Joseph Augustus (30 July 2007). With Captain Stairs to Katanga: Slavery and Subjugation in the Congo 1891–1892. Jeppestown Press. p. 56. ISBN 978-0-9553936-5-5..
  6. Swann, Alfred J. (6 December 2012). Fighting the Slave Hunters in Central Africa: A Record of Twenty-Six Years of Travel and Adventure Round the Great Lakes. Routledge. p. 34. ISBN 978-1-136-25681-3..
  7. Cheza, Maurice (2005). L'accompagnement arme- des missionaires dans l'Afrique des Grand Lacs: Les cas de Joubert et Vrithoff". Les conditions matérielles de la mission: contraintes, dépassements et imaginaires, XVIIe-XXe siècles : Actes du colloque conjoint du CREDIC, de l'AFOM et du Centre Vincent Lebbe : Belley (Ain) du 31 août au 3 septembre 2004 (in French). KARTHALA Editions. p. 96. ISBN 978-2-84586-682-9..
  8. Swann 2012, p. 34.
  9. Ergo 2005, p. 43.
  10. "Armoiries". www.jacquesdedixmude.net. Retrieved 22 March 2020.

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