Alfred Jackson (25 October 1887 – 21 September 1964) was an Australian military officer and an

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by k ...

er who played for the

Essendon Football Club The Essendon Football Club, nicknamed the Bombers, is a professional Australian rules football club. The club plays in the Australian Football League (AFL), the game's premier competition. The club was formed by the McCracken family in their A ...

in the

Victorian Football League The Victorian Football League (VFL) is an Australian rules football league in Australia serving as one of the second-tier regional semi-professional competitions which sit underneath the fully professional Australian Football League (AFL). It ...

(VFL).

Family

The son of Alfred Jackson (1858-1901), and Sarah Ann Jackson (1860-1952), née Williams, later Mrs Fisenden, Alfred Jackson was born in

Brunswick, Victoria Brunswick is an inner-city suburb in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, north of Melbourne's Melbourne city centre, Central Business District, located within the City of Merri-bek Local government areas of Victoria, local gov ...

on 25 October 1887.

Football

Training Units team (AIF)

He played for the (losing) Australian Training Units team in the famous "Pioneer Exhibition Game" of Australian Rules football, held in London, in October 1916. A news film was taken at the match.The 2019 remastered and colourised version of the original newsreel:

Military service

Jackson joined the Army in 1911 and applied for a commission at the commencement of World War I. He served at Gallipoli, being concussed and shot in action, but returned to the Peninsula after treatment in Malta and took over command of the 7th Battalion. He was subsequently transferred to France, promoted to

lieutenant colonel Lieutenant colonel ( , ) is a rank of commissioned officers in the armies, most marine forces and some air forces of the world, above a major and below a colonel. Several police forces in the United States use the rank of lieutenant colone ...

and assumed command of the 60th Battalion, being involved in the Battle of Fromelles in June 1916. In July 1917 he assumed command of the 58th Battalion and later commanded various training units until the end of the war. He was Mentioned in Despatches in 1918 and appointed as an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1919. In World War II, Jackson served as a Lieutenant Colonel in the 3rd Ambulance Brigade.

Notes

References

* Photographs a
Group portrait of officers of the 7th Battalion on the Aegean island of Lemnos (C01190), collection of the ''Australian War Memorial''
an
Volunteers of Essendon and Flemington, 1914-1918, Captain A. Jackson, ''empirecall.pbworks.com''.
* Maplestone, M., ''Flying Higher: History of the Essendon Football Club 1872–1996'', Essendon Football Club, (Melbourne), 1996.
First World War Embarkation Roll: Captain Alfred Jackson, collection of the ''Australian War Memorial''.

Honours and Awards (Order of the British Empire): Lieutenant Colonel Alfred Jackson, ''Australian War Memorial''.

Service "Timeline": Lieutenant Colonel Alfred Jackson, ''Australian War Memorial''.

First World War Nominal Roll: Lt. Col. Alfred Jackson (O.B.E.), collection of the ''Australian War Memorial''.

First World War Service Record: Lieutenant Colonel Alfred Jackson )BE), ''National Archives of Australia''.

External links

*
Fred Jackson at ''australianfootball.com''
1887 births 1964 deaths Australian rules footballers from Melbourne Essendon Football Club players Participants in "Pioneer Exhibition Game" (London, 28 October 1916) Australian Officers of the Order of the British Empire People from Brunswick, Victoria Military personnel from Melbourne Australian military personnel of World War I Australian military personnel of World War II {{AFL-bio-1887-stub