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John Jackson (1887-1930)


Sunderland policeman served with AIF and Indian Army in Basra, Iraq


By 1916, John Jackson from West Auckland was living and working as a carpenter in Melbourne, Australia. Consequently, he enlisted as a private in the Australian Army but just 16 months later he received his commission as an officer in the Indian Army.

John was born in April 1887 in West Auckland. His father, William, was a colliery fitter, having moved there from Seaham, while his mother, Elizabeth, came originally from Tyne Dock. Four years later, the 1891 census shows that there were now three little boys under the age of five, (John was the eldest) and the family were living in Walker, outside Newcastle.

On 4 March 1911, John married Margaret Ethel Coates in Staindrop and their first child, Eva, was born the same year. At the time of the census that year, John was working as a policeman in Sunderland and had taken lodgings in the town. There is no record of where Margaret was living at that time.

Sometime after the 1911 census, John took his little family to start a new life in Australia, settling in the suburbs of Melbourne. But tragedy struck soon after, when little Eva died at the age of just two, in 1913. Another daughter, Doris May Wilhemina, was born the following year.

On 17 May 1916, John enlisted in Brunswick, Victoria, as a private in the 3rd Reinforcements of the 1st Wireless Company of the Australian Army. He qualified as a driver and on 25 July embarked from Melbourne, to serve in the Mesopotamia Campaign. He found himself stationed in Basra, Iraq, and on 25 July, was promoted to the rank of Acting Corporal.

The 1st Wireless Company was set up to provide trained wireless operators and signallers to support the British Indian Army in Mesopotamia and when John succumbed to sand-fly fever on 6 December 1916, it was to India that he was evacuated to recover.

On 1 September 1917, having worked closely with the officers of the Indian Army, John himself received a commission as 2nd Lieutenant in the Infantry Branch of the Indian Army Reserve of Officers. In due course, he was appointed as Lieutenant in the Supply & Transport Group and served out the war with that unit.

After the war, John returned to Melbourne and resumed his occupation as a carpenter. He died on 1 November 1930, in the Caulfield Military Hospital, Melbourne. Margaret lived on a further 37 years; she died in 1967.

Civil Parish: Sunderland

Birth date: 1887

Death date: 01-Nov-1930

Armed force/civilian: Army

Residence: Diamond Row, Walker, Long Benton (ecclesiastical parish of Walker Christ Church 1891 census)
78 Victor Street, Sunderland (1911 census)
Bury Street, Euroa, Victoria, Australia (1913 death certificate for daughter Eva Jackson)
13 Richard Street, Coburg, Melbourne (1916-1919 attestation papers)
23 Molesworth Street, Coburg (1925-28 electoral rolls)

Employment: Policeman, Carpenter

Family: Parents: William Jackson (b 1861), Elizabeth Jackson (b 1864 in Tyne Dock)
Siblings: Robert Jackson (1889), Bertie Jackson (b 1890)
Wife: Margaret Ethel Jackson (nee Coates 1887-1967)
Children: Eva Jackson (1911-13), Doris May Wilhemina Jackson (b 1914)

Military service:

Service Number 14515
Private/driver
Promoted Acting Corporal 25-Jul-1916
1st (Australian) Wireless Company
2nd Lieutenant
Lieutenant
Indian Army Supply & Transport Group

Medal(s): British War Medal
Victory Medal

Gender: Male

Contributed by Kelloe Visitor, Trimdon Station

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