Robert Hugh Jackson

OBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

MC (9 May 19185 October 2013) was a British paediatrician most notable for his campaign to introduce childproof packaging to medicine."Hugh Jackson"
''

The Telegraph ''The Telegraph'', ''Daily Telegraph'', ''Sunday Telegraph'' and other variant names are popular names for newspapers. Newspapers with these titles include: Australia * ''The Telegraph'' (Adelaide), a newspaper in Adelaide, South Australia, publ ...

'', London, 5 October 2005. Retrieved on 15 October 2013.

Life

Hugh Jackson was born in

Oldham Oldham is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, amid the Pennines and between the rivers Irk and Medlock, southeast of Rochdale and northeast of Manchester. It is the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, wh ...

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

to a medical family. He finished school at Oundle and did his medical schooling at Oxford. He and another student restarted a boys' club for deprived youth while they were at Oxford. Normally Jackson would have done his clinical training in London but because of the beginning of World War II, he was part of the first group to be fast-tracked in clinical training at

Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

. One of his teachers was Sir

Howard Florey Howard Walter Florey, Baron Florey (24 September 189821 February 1968) was an Australian pharmacologist and pathologist who shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1945 with Sir Ernst Chain and Sir Alexander Fleming for his role in ...

a pioneer who went on to win the

Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine is awarded yearly by the Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute for outstanding discoveries in physiology or medicine. The Nobel Prize is not a single prize, but five separate prizes that, accord ...

in 1945 along with Sir

Ernst Boris Chain Sir Ernst Boris Chain (19 June 1906 – 12 August 1979) was a German-born British biochemist best known for being a co-recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work on penicillin. Life and career Chain was born in Ber ...

and Sir

Alexander Fleming Sir Alexander Fleming (6 August 1881 – 11 March 1955) was a Scottish physician and microbiologist, best known for discovering the world's first broadly effective antibiotic substance, which he named penicillin. His discovery in 1928 of w ...

for his role in the making of

penicillin Penicillins (P, PCN or PEN) are a group of β-lactam antibiotics originally obtained from ''Penicillium'' moulds, principally '' P. chrysogenum'' and '' P. rubens''. Most penicillins in clinical use are synthesised by P. chrysogenum using ...

."The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1945"
'' Nobelprize.org. Nobel Media AB 2013.'', Retrieved on 15 October 2013. Jackson was fortunate to see some of the early successes with

. He trained in the A&E department at

Radcliffe Infirmary The Radcliffe Infirmary was a hospital in central north Oxford, England, located at the southern end of Woodstock Road on the western side, backing onto Walton Street. History The initial proposals to build a hospital in Oxford were put forw ...

and also in Wingfield Orthopaedic Hospital where he met his future wife Shirley who was doing research in traumatic nerve damage. He and Shirley were married in 1945. Dr. Jackson died 5 October 2013 at age 95, preceded in death by his wife Shirley and one of their three sons.

Career

After his clinical training, he became a Medical Officer for an Infantry Battalion of the Royal West Kent Regiment in Italy. He was awarded the

Military Cross The Military Cross (MC) is the third-level (second-level pre-1993) military decoration awarded to officers and (since 1993) other ranks of the British Armed Forces, and formerly awarded to officers of other Commonwealth countries. The MC i ...

for heroism in northern Italy in treating more than a dozen soldiers injured when a house was shelled and collapsed. His efforts in crawling through the debris with two orderlies to treat the injured during the 17-hour effort to rescue them promoted confidence among the soldiers and helped prevent additional deaths. On his return to civilian life after the war, he began work under Sir James Spence, a pioneer in social paediatrics. In this process he set up a new paediatric units in North Shields and

Gateshead Gateshead () is a large town in northern England. It is on the River Tyne's southern bank, opposite Newcastle upon Tyne, Newcastle to which it is joined by seven bridges. The town contains the Gateshead Millennium Bridge, Millennium Bridge, Sage ...

. He followed these by speciality work in

gastroenterology Gastroenterology (from the Greek gastḗr- “belly”, -énteron “intestine”, and -logía "study of") is the branch of medicine focused on the digestive system and its disorders. The digestive system consists of the gastrointestinal tract ...

and

nephrology Nephrology (from Greek'' nephros'' "kidney", combined with the suffix ''-logy'', "the study of") is a specialty of adult internal medicine and pediatric medicine that concerns the study of the kidneys, specifically normal kidney function (ren ...

at the Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle. He worked with Dr. Davison at the Fleming Memorial Hospital in Newcastle from 1957 to 1961 in providing critical care for infants and children. One of their efforts was to begin co-admission of mothers with their babies in special cubicles to allow the mothers to continue breast-feed and care for their babies. In 1976, with Professor

Donald Court Seymour Donald Mayneord Court, CBE, FRCSLT, FRCP, Hon FRCGP (born 4 January 1912 in Wem, died 9 September 1994 in Newcastle upon Tyne) was a deeply religious British paediatrician who was known for his achievements in the fields of respiratory ...

, he persuaded the

King’s Fund The King's Fund is an independent think tank, which is involved with work relating to the health system in England. It organises conferences and other events. Since 1997, they have jointly funded a yearly award system with GlaxoSmithKline. T ...

to provide start-up funding and office space to form the

Child Accident Prevention Trust A child ( : children) is a human being between the stages of birth and puberty, or between the developmental period of infancy and puberty. The legal definition of ''child'' generally refers to a minor, otherwise known as a person younger ...

(CAPT). He contributed a section on abdominal pain in pediatric emergencies to the 1978 book, ''Management of medical emergencies''. He was appointed

in 2000, and was awarded the

James Spence Medal James Spence Medal is a medal that was first struck in 1960, six years after the death of the paediatrician James Calvert Spence and is awarded for outstanding contributions to the advancement or clarification of Pediatrics, paediatric knowledge a ...

by the

Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, often referred to as the RCPCH, is the professional body for paediatricians (doctors specialising in child health) in the United Kingdom. It is responsible for the postgraduate training of paed ...

in recognition of his contribution to child health.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jackson, Hugh 1918 births 2013 deaths British Army personnel of World War II British paediatricians People educated at Oundle School Officers of the Order of the British Empire Recipients of the Military Cross Recipients of the James Spence Medal