Elliott Jaques studied medicine, and later became a major in the Canadian Army. He acted as a liaison offier with the Psychiatric Division of the British Army under Brigadier JR Rees, and in this role he made contact with psychoanalysts who worked in the British Army. Several of these officers, along with Jaques and myself, trained as psychoanalysts. Jaques was one of the founder members of the Tavistock Institute of Human Relations. In 1961 Jaques was elected as Scientific Secretary of the British Psychoanalytic Society. In 1965 he was appointed Professor and Head of the School of Social Sciences at Brunel University. In 1967 he asked me to work as a part-time senior lecturer in the School. Jaques was a prolific writer and became known to organizations world-wide. He was a consultant to a number of institutions, and later to governments, including the Pentagon. In 1980 he left London for the USA.