Jack Marx (bridge)

John Charles Hubert Marx (12 April 1907 – 29 August 1991), known as Jack Marx, was a British international bridge player who was instrumental in developing the Acol bidding system.

Marx was born in Willesden, London. He went to Repton School, and served as a captain in the Royal Army Service Corps during World War II.

As a competition bridge player he was a genuine expert, though not the most pragmatic player. Marx was a modest man and widely loved; indeed, he was one of the few bridge players who never made an enemy. He did not, however, have an equable temperament, and that limited his career as an international player.

Marx was a member of the Harrison-Gray team, and played as Gray's partner to win the European Bridge League championship teams-of-four for Great Britain in 1950, but he turned down the chance to play in the inaugural Bermuda Bowl world championship the same year:

Despite his temperament, Marx won the Gold Cup in 1937 and 1947, and once more in 1971 after Gray's death.

Though he never wrote a bridge book, Jack contributed many articles to bridge magazines, compèred many bidding competitions, and appeared on many bidding panels. He held a variety of administrative positions in bridge organisations, and was a British Bridge League selector for many years. After a stroke in the 1970s he recovered sufficiently to play regularly at the London Duplicate Club, but no longer played in major competitions. In his later years, he was known among players of a younger generation as "The Headmaster", and to the less reverent young players of a still younger generation as "Big Daddy Acol".

Marx died in Haringey, London, in 1991.

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