Branch of Service

Army

Conflict

World War I (1914-1918)

Date of Enlistment

05/02/1916

Date of Discharge

09/04/1919

Place of Enlistment

Goulburn NSW

Gender

Male

Other Name(s)

Known as 'Sam'

Place of Birth

South Melbourne, Victoria

Address (at enlistment)

Brickworks (Yarralumla) ACT

Occupation

Labourer

Next of Kin

William Jacobs (father), Brickworks (Yarralumla) ACT

Service Number

2167

Final Rank

Private

Final Unit

55 Battalion AIF

Queanbeyan RSL Wall of Remembrance, Crawford St, Queanbeyan NSW

Military Medal (Commonwealth of Australia Gazette 12 February 1919)

Sam Jacobs lived at the Brickworks with his parents and applied to enlist at Queanbeyan on 5 February 1916 when he was 19 years of age. He arrived in France in December 1916 and served with the 55th Battalion in the muddy trenches of the Somme battlefield near Gueudecourt during the winter of 1916-17. He was wounded in the thigh during the 55th Battalion's attack on Doignies and was out of the line until March 1918. He earned the Military Medal for his actions on 4 July 1918 during a raid on the Brick Beacon near Morlancourt, undertaken as a feint for the attack on Hamel on the other side of the Somme River. Jacobs assumed command of his section and showed leadership during the resultant hand-to-hand fight in the German trenches. He was wounded in the thigh a second time, near Peronne in September 1918. Jacobs returned to Australia in January 1919 and was discharged on 9 April 1919. He later married and lived in Melbourne. Jacobs died at the Caulfield Military Hospital, Victoria on 27 September 1937 aged 40 years.

Description - height 5 feet 9 inches, weight 145 pounds, chest 32-35½ inches, fair complexion, blue eyes, brown red hair, Church of England, mole on neck, mole on shoulder, teeth needing attention, perfect vision.

Our Queanbeyan 'Boys' No.3, Howard & Shearsby, Yass (postcard)
Rex Cross, 'Bygone Queanbeyan', 1980
Queanbeyan Age - 16 June 1914, 2 October 1914, 18 June 1915, 27 July 1915, 19 November 1915, 30 May 1916
The Age - 29 September 1937
AWM Honours & Awards
NAA RecordSearch - Series B2455 (First Australian Imperial Force Personnel Dossiers, 1914-1920)
Stories from the ACT Memorial, 'The Men from Snowy River', ACT Heritage Library www.library.act.gov.au/find/history/stories_from_the_act_memorial