Alexander Skinner Jackson (12 May 1905 – 15 November 1946) was a Scottish

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

who played for clubs including

Dumbarton Dumbarton (; , or ; or , meaning 'fort of the Britons (historical), Britons') is a town in West Dunbartonshire, Scotland, on the north bank of the River Clyde where the River Leven, Dunbartonshire, River Leven flows into the Clyde estuary. ...

Bethlehem Steel The Bethlehem Steel Corporation was an American steelmaking company headquartered in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Until its closure in 2003, it was one of the world's largest steel-producing and shipbuilding companies. At the height of its success ...

Aberdeen Aberdeen ( ; ; ) is a port city in North East Scotland, and is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, third most populous Cities of Scotland, Scottish city. Historically, Aberdeen was within the historic county of Aberdeensh ...

Huddersfield Town Huddersfield Town Association Football Club is a professional association football club based in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, England. They compete in , the third tier of English football league system, English football. Huddersfield Town we ...

, Chelsea and

Nice Nice ( ; ) is a city in and the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative city limits, with a population of nearly one million English Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional association football, football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, it is the oldest football league in Association football around the world, the w ...

title with Huddersfield in 1925–26. Jackson received 17 international

caps Caps are flat headgear. Caps or CAPS may also refer to: Science and technology Computing * CESG Assisted Products Service, provided by the U.K. Government Communications Headquarters * Composite Application Platform Suite, by Java Caps, a Java ...

for

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

over a five-year period, and was a member of the 1928 team that became known as the '

Wembley Wizards The Wembley Wizards is the nickname for the Scotland national football team that defeated England 5–1 at Wembley in the 1928 British Home Championship. Background Scotland had failed to win either of their previous matches in the 1928 Brit ...

' after defeating

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

5–1 in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, scoring three of those goals.

Football career

Club

Jackson was born and raised in Renton. A highly talented

outside right In the sport of association football, a forward (attacker or striker) is an outfield position which primarily plays further up the pitch than midfielders and defenders. As with any attacking player, the role of the forward relies heavily on bei ...

, known as ''the Gay Cavalier'', he was particularly adept at dribbling and free kicks. He initially played for Renton Victoria but was transferred to

in 1922 for the pre-inflation price of a football. In 1923, he left Scotland to play in the American Soccer League with

alongside his elder brother Wattie, before both returned to Scotland to play for

. After an impressive debut season for the ''Dons'' he joined

, then the reigning League Champions, for a record £5000. Jackson helped Huddersfield retain their league title in 1925–26 and the runners-up spot in the following two years. He also led them to two

FA Cup Final The FA Cup Final is the last match in the FA Cup, Football Association Challenge Cup. It has regularly been one of the List of sports attendance figures, most attended domestic football events in the world, with an official attendance of 89,472 ...

s: he scored in the 1928 final against

Blackburn Rovers Blackburn Rovers Football Club is a professional football club based in Blackburn, Lancashire, England, which competes in the , the second level of the English football league system. They have played home matches at Ewood Park since 1890. Th ...

, but Huddersfield lost 3–1. In

1930 Events January * January 15 – The Moon moves into its nearest point to Earth, called perigee, at the same time as its fullest phase of the Lunar Cycle. This is the closest moon distance at in recent history, and the next one will be on J ...

he was again on the losing side, this time against

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

. Jackson signed for David Calderhead's big-spending Chelsea in September 1930 for £8,500, joining international teammates

Hughie Gallacher Hugh Kilpatrick Gallacher (2 February 1903 – 11 June 1957) was a Scottish people, Scottish association football, football player in the 1920s and 1930s. In 597 senior club games, Gallacher scored 419 goals, playing league football for Airdri ...

, Tommy Law and

Alec Cheyne Alexander George Cheyne (28 April 1907 – 5 July 1983) was a Scottish footballer who played as an inside forward. He is reputed to have been responsible for the Hampden Roar following his goal in the 'Cheyne International' of 1929. Playing c ...

. His time at Chelsea was hampered by injuries, though he linked up well with the prolific Gallacher and scored 31 goals from 78 games for the club. Jackson's first-class career ended prematurely during the 1932–33 season. Having already fallen foul of the Chelsea hierarchy for activities relating to the public house he operated, he and several other star players at the club were approached by the French side

Nîmes Nîmes ( , ; ; Latin: ''Nemausus'') is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Gard Departments of France, department in the Occitania (administrative region), Occitanie Regions of France, region of Southern France. Located between the Med ...

with a lucrative contract offer, which Jackson threatened to accept unless Chelsea broke their

maximum wage A maximum wage, also often called a wage ceiling, is a legal limit on how much income an individual can earn. It is a prescribed limitation which can be used to effect change in an economic structure. Implementation No major economy has a direct e ...

structure and increased his salary. The club refused to budge and Jackson was forced to finish his career playing for a series of

non-league Non-League football describes association football, football leagues played outside the top leagues of a country. Usually, it describes leagues which are not fully professional. The term is primarily used for football in England, where it is ...

clubs such as Ashton National (from

Ashton-under-Lyne Ashton-under-Lyne is a market town in Tameside, Greater Manchester, England. The population was 48,604 at the 2021 census. Historic counties of England, Historically in Lancashire, it is on the north bank of the River Tame, Greater Manchester, ...

) and

Margate Margate is a seaside resort, seaside town in the Thanet District of Kent, England. It is located on the north coast of Kent and covers an area of long, north-east of Canterbury and includes Cliftonville, Garlinge, Palm Bay, UK, Palm Bay and W ...

. He later joined the French side

cap A cap is a flat headgear, usually with a visor. Caps have crowns that fit very close to the head. They made their first appearance as early as 3200 BC. The origin of the word "cap" comes from the Old French word "chapeau" which means "head co ...

at the age of 19 and scored the winning goal against

to clinch the 1925–26 British Home Championship. He was one of the

, the Scotland side that beat England 5–1 at

Wembley Wembley () is a large suburbIn British English, "suburb" often refers to the secondary urban centres of a city. Wembley is not a suburb in the American sense, i.e. a single-family residential area outside of the city itself. in the London Borou ...

in March 1928; Jackson scored a

hat-trick A hat-trick or hat trick is the achievement of a generally positive feat three times in a match, or another achievement based on the number three. Origin The term first appeared in 1858 in cricket, to describe H. H. Stephenson taking three Wick ...

during the match.England 1-5 Scotland: The day the Wembley Wizards were born
Richard Winton, BBC Sport, 5 June 2020 He stated that his most "glorious" match for Scotland was eleven months later, when he scored twice in a 7–3 victory over

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

Belfast Belfast (, , , ; from ) is the capital city and principal port of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan and connected to the open sea through Belfast Lough and the North Channel (Great Britain and Ireland), North Channel ...

. His international career was later hindered by a ban on ''Anglos'' (Scots who played for English clubs) as a result of a dispute between the SFA and FA, and he finished with 17 caps and eight goals, finishing on the losing side only once.The Forgotten Story of … Alex Jackson, star of Scotland's Wembley Wizards
The Guardian, 16 November 2014
London Hearts Supporters Club

Career statistics

International

:''Scores and results list Scotland's goal tally first.''

Other interests

Jackson was the landlord of a public house in London's

Covent Garden Covent Garden is a district in London, on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit-and-vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist sit ...

while playing with Chelsea, and also had a weekly newspaper column. After retiring from international football he owned greyhounds at Wandsworth Stadium. He was enthusiastic about the stadium after it was built in 1933 and his first greyhound was called Jovial Honey. He also urged the management to consider the possibility of using the stadium as a football field inside the greyhound track. He was killed in a

traffic collision A traffic collision, also known as a motor vehicle collision, or car crash, occurs when a vehicle collides with another vehicle, pedestrian, animal, road debris, or other moving or stationary obstruction, such as a tree, pole or building. Tr ...

whilst serving with the

army An army, ground force or land force is an armed force that fights primarily on land. In the broadest sense, it is the land-based military branch, service branch or armed service of a nation or country. It may also include aviation assets by ...

, as a major in the Pioneer Corps in Egypt in 1946 aged 40. He is buried at the Fayid War Cemetery.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Jackson, Alex 1905 births 1946 deaths Aberdeen F.C. players American Soccer League (1921–1933) players Men's association football outside forwards Bethlehem Steel F.C. (1907–1930) players British Army personnel of World War II Chelsea F.C. players Dumbarton F.C. players Huddersfield Town A.F.C. players Road incident deaths in Egypt Scottish expatriate men's footballers Scottish expatriate sportspeople in France Scottish expatriate sportspeople in the United States Scottish men's footballers Scotland men's international footballers English Football League players People in greyhound racing People educated at Dumbarton Academy Expatriate men's soccer players in the United States Footballers from Renton, West Dunbartonshire 20th-century Scottish people 20th-century Scottish sportsmen