Sir Frederick John Jackson, (17 February 1860 – 3 February 1929) was an English administrator, explorer and ornithologist.

Early years

Jackson was born at Oran Hall, near

Catterick, North Yorkshire Catterick () is a village, civil parish and electoral ward in the Richmondshire district of North Yorkshire, England. Historically part of the North Riding of Yorkshire, it is north-west of the county town of Northallerton just to the west of ...

in 1860. He attended

Shrewsbury School Shrewsbury School is a public school (English independent boarding school for pupils aged 13 –18) in Shrewsbury. Founded in 1552 by Edward VI by Royal Charter, it was originally a boarding school for boys; girls have been admitted into ...

and then

Jesus College, Cambridge Jesus College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college's full name is The College of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Saint John the Evangelist and the glorious Virgin Saint Radegund, near Cambridge. Its common name comes fr ...

. In 1884 he went to Africa on a shooting trip, joining J. G. Haggard, the British consul at Lamu. On this trip he explored the coast of what is now Kenya, the Tana River and Mount Kilimanjaro. As well as shooting big game, he collected birds and butterflies. Soon after the 1886 treaty was signed to delimit the German and British spheres of influence in East Africa he joined the

Imperial British East Africa Company The Imperial British East Africa Company (IBEAC) was a commercial association founded to develop African trade in the areas controlled by the British Empire. The company was incorporated in London on 18 April 1888 and granted a royal charter by Q ...

(IBEAC).

Administrator

In 1889 Jackson led an IBEAC expedition that included his friend and fellow explorer Arthur Neumann in the party designed to open up the regions between

Mombasa Mombasa ( ; ) is a coastal city in southeastern Kenya along the Indian Ocean. It was the first capital of the British East Africa, before Nairobi was elevated to capital city status. It now serves as the capital of Mombasa County. The town is ...

and Lake Victoria, which was largely unknown to Europeans at that time, and if possible to obtain news of Emin Pasha. At

Kavirondo Kavirondo is the former name of the region surrounding Kavirondo Gulf (now Winam Gulf) as well as of two native peoples living there under the regime of British East Africa (The "Nilotic Kavirondo" and the "Bantu Kavirondo"). Broadly, this was defi ...

he received a letter from King

Mwanga II of Buganda Danieri Basammula-Ekkere Mwanga II Mukasa (1868 – 8 May 1903)D. A. Low''Fabrication of Empire: The British and the Uganda Kingdoms, 1890-1902'' Cambridge University Press, 2009, p. 210, note 196. was Kabaka of Buganda from 1884 until 1888 and fro ...

in Uganda describing a state of great confusion there owing to rivalry between different Christian factions. He went north, exploring the country beyond Mount Elgon. On his return to Kavirondo he found that the German Karl Peters had passed him and raised the German flag, which he pulled down. He went on to Uganda where he found the

Baganda The Ganda people, or Baganda (endonym: ''Baganda''; singular ''Muganda''), are a Bantu ethnic group native to Buganda, a subnational kingdom within Uganda. Traditionally composed of 52 clans (although since a 1993 survey, only 46 are official ...

uncertain about whether to accept an IBEAC administration. The decision was made for them by the Heligoland treaty of 1900 in which Britain was given Uganda. The British government took over the administration of

British East Africa East Africa Protectorate (also known as British East Africa) was an area in the African Great Lakes occupying roughly the same terrain as present-day Kenya from the Indian Ocean inland to the border with Uganda in the west. Controlled by Bri ...

from IBEAC in 1894, and Jackson became an official. He was Lieutenant-Governor of the East African Protectorate (1907–1911) and Governor of Uganda (1911–1917). He was appointed a Companion of the

Order of the Bath The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I of Great Britain, George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the elaborate medieval ceremony for appointing a knight, which involved Bathing#Medieval ...

(CB) for services during the mutiny of Sudanese troops in Uganda in 1898. For his administrative work he was appointed a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG) in the

1902 Coronation Honours The 1902 Coronation Honours were announced on 26 June 1902, the date originally set for the coronation of King Edward VII. The coronation was postponed because the King had been taken ill two days before, but he ordered that the honours list shou ...

list on 26 June 1902, and knighted as a Knight Commander (KCMG) of the same order in 1913. He retired in 1917.

Naturalist

Jackson joined the British Ornithologists' Union in 1888. That year a paper by Jackson and Captain Shelley was published describing birds collected during his 1884–1886 trip to Africa. He collected many specimens in an 1898–1891 expedition to Uganda, and descriptions of this collection were published in a five-part paper in the ''

Ibis The ibises () (collective plural ibis; classical plurals ibides and ibes) are a group of long-legged wading birds in the family Threskiornithidae, that inhabit wetlands, forests and plains. "Ibis" derives from the Latin and Ancient Greek word ...

'' in 1891–1892. Other papers described new species appeared in the ''Ibis'' and other journals between 1890 and 1917. Jackson was elected President of the East Africa and Uganda Natural History Society in 1910. He wrote nine of the nineteen chapters of ''Big Game Shooting'', published in 1894. After retiring, he worked on a complete history of the Birds of East Africa and Uganda, which was unpublished when he died in 1929, following pneumonia. ''The Birds of Kenya Colony and the Uganda Protectorate'' was completed by

William Lutley Sclater William Lutley Sclater (23 September 1863 – 4 July 1944) was a British zoologist and museum director. He was the son of Philip Lutley Sclater and was named after his paternal grandfather, also William Lutley Sclater. Life William's mother, J ...

and published in 1938.

Taxa named in his honor

Jackson is commemorated in the names of over 20 species or subspecies of birds, six mammal species, four reptile species, and several fish.

Birds

Jackson's spurfowl or Jackson's francolin ('' Pternistis jacksoni'') is a species of

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweig ...

in the family Phasianidae. It is found in

Kenya ) , national_anthem = " Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"() , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Nairobi , coordinates = , largest_city = Nairobi ...

and

Uganda }), is a landlocked country in East Africa. The country is bordered to the east by Kenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the south-west by Rwanda, and to the south by Tanzania. The sou ...

. Its preferred habitats include mountainous forests and stands of

bamboo Bamboos are a diverse group of evergreen perennial flowering plants making up the subfamily Bambusoideae of the grass family Poaceae. Giant bamboos are the largest members of the grass family. The origin of the word "bamboo" is uncertain, ...

Mammals

Reptiles

Jackson's Chameleon

Fish

*'' Brycinus jacksonii'' ( Boulenger 1912) *'' Amphilius jacksonii'' Boulenger 1912 *'' Enteromius jacksoni'' ( Günther 1889)

Bibliography

* *

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Jackson, Frederick John 1859 births 1929 deaths English explorers British ornithologists Governors of Uganda Companions of the Order of the Bath Knights Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George People educated at Shrewsbury School Zoological collectors People from Catterick, North Yorkshire Deaths from pneumonia in France