Lance Corporal William Frederick Jackson
Jackson with his bride Alice, 25 October 1917
William Frederick Jackson was born on 3 April 1888 at Loughgall, County Armagh, the sixth of eight children of grocer (later merchant) George Jackson and his wife Martha Lena (nee Best). William's mother died of tuberculosis when he was just eight years old. By 1911 he was living with his father and four siblings at Loughgall and working as a shop assistant.
Jackson enlisted in the North Irish Horse on 19 October 1912 (No.749 – later Corps of Hussars No.71091). One record from the time gives his occupation as farmer, another later record shows him as a chemist.
On 7 March 1914 he was promoted to lance corporal . He embarked for France with C Squadron on 20 August that year, seeing action on the retreat from Mons and advance to the Aisne. On 8 January 1915 at Hazebrouck he was badly injured, suffering a fractured right leg and injured foot. He was evacuated to England where he was admitted to hospital. After the injuries healed he returned to duty at the North Irish Horse reserve depot at Antrim.
Jackson returned to France on 3 January 1916, where he was posted to C Squadron. On 25 April 1917 he reverted to the rank of private at his own request.
A month later he fell ill with pleurisy. He was evacuated to England, where he was admitted to the Derbyshire Royal Infirmary for treatment. Following convalescence at the Red Cross Hospital, Darley Dale, and at Ballykinlar, on 6 September he was found fit enough to return to duty (Category A3).
It is probable that Jackson spent the remainder of the war at the North Irish Horse Antrim depot.
On 25 October 1917 he married Alice Victoria Maud Davison (daughter of 'gentleman farmer' William Hervey Davison of Ardress House) in the Annaghmore Church of Ireland Parish Church. The couple had five children between 1918 and 1926.
Jackson was demobilised and transferred to Class Z, Army Reserve, on 11 February 1919.
After the war he established a chemist business in Cavan. In the 1930s he moved to England, where he ran a pharmacy in Bournemouth.
Jackson later returned to Northern Ireland, his wife having died in Bournemouth in 1949. By 1961 he was living at 31 Donaghadee Road, Bangor, County Down. He died on 13 December 1961 in the Bangor Hospital, and was buried in the Jackson grave in Loughgall.
Image and some of the information above kindly provided by Louise Fountain.
This page last updated 27 February 2023.