James Jackson (15 September 1875 – after 1914) was a

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 as a full back or at

wing half In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. ...

. Jackson's family emigrated from Scotland to Australia where he was raised and where he began his senior football career while still in his early teens. Australian football was still forming and Jackson played for teams from mining areas such as South New Lambton, before being recorded as playing for both Hamilton and Adamstown Rosebud. He returned to Scotland in 1893, appearing in Junior football and briefly for

Rangers A ranger is typically someone in a law enforcement or military/paramilitary role specializing in patrolling a given territory, called "ranging" or "scouting". The term most often refers to: * Park ranger or forest ranger, a person charged with prot ...

before moving to England to join

Newcastle United Newcastle United Football Club is a professional association football club based in Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league system, English football. Since th ...

. Two years later he signed for Woolwich Arsenal where he spent six seasons, captaining the club in its inaugural season in the

Football League First Division The Football League First Division was the top division of the Football League in England from 1888 until the end of the 1991–92 season, when its teams broke away to form the Premier League. From 1992 to 2004, the name First Division was g ...

. After a short spell as

player-manager A player–coach (also playing coach, captain–coach, or player–manager) is a member of a sports team who simultaneously holds both playing and coaching duties. Player–coaches may be head coaches or assistant coaches, and they may make chang ...

Leyton Leyton ( ) is a town in East London, England, within the London Borough of Waltham Forest. It borders Walthamstow to the north, Leytonstone to the east, and Stratford to the south, with Clapton, Hackney Wick and Homerton, across the Ri ...

and five months with

West Ham United West Ham United Football Club is a professional Association football, football club based in Stratford, London, Stratford, East London, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league system, English f ...

of the Southern League, he rejoined Rangers for two seasons. He ended his career with spells at four more

Scottish League The Scottish Football League (SFL) is a defunct league featuring professional and semi-professional football clubs mostly from Scotland.One club, Berwick Rangers, is based in the town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, which is located approximately 4 k ...

clubs: Port Glasgow Athletic,

Hamilton Academical Hamilton Academical Football Club, often known as Hamilton Accies, or The Accies, is a Scottish football club from Hamilton, South Lanarkshire, who currently compete in . They were established in 1874 from the school football team at Hamilto ...

, Morton and

Abercorn Abercorn ( Gaelic: ''Obar Chùirnidh'', Old English: ''Æbbercurnig'') is a village and civil parish in West Lothian, Scotland. Close to the south coast of the Firth of Forth, the village is around west of South Queensferry. The parish had a ...

Life and career

Jackson was born in

Cambuslang Cambuslang (, from ) is a town on the south-eastern outskirts of Greater Glasgow, Scotland. With approximately 30,000 residents, it is the 27th-largest town in Scotland by population, although, never having had a town hall, it may also be cons ...

Lanarkshire Lanarkshire, also called the County of Lanark (; ), is a Counties of Scotland, historic county, Lieutenancy areas of Scotland, lieutenancy area and registration county in the Central Lowlands and Southern Uplands of Scotland. The county is no l ...

, Scotland, but his family emigrated to Australia when he was two. The young Jackson grew up in

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

and played football as a youth. He is believed to be the youngest player to have appeared in senior football in that country, having played for Hamilton Athletic in 1889 at the age of 13 years 7 months. He remained with Hamilton for the 1890 season, then in 1891 he moved on to

Adamstown Rosebud Adamstown Rosebud Football Club (founded July 12, 1889) is a semi-professional soccer club based in Adamstown a suburb of Newcastle, New South Wales. The club is part of Northern NSW Football and has teams competing in Senior and Youth NPL comp ...

. Jackson returned to Scotland in 1893. He played Junior football for Newton Thistle and

, and then signed for

in 1896, but appeared only once in their Scottish League team. He was sold to

in May 1897, and played for the Magpies for two seasons, helping them achieve promotion to the

in 1897–98. In 1899 he joined Woolwich Arsenal, attracted by the club's willingness to help him open a sports shop. He made his debut against

Leicester Fosse Leicester City Football Club is a professional association football, football club based in the city of Leicester, East Midlands, England. The club compete in the EFL Championship, the second tier of English football league system, English f ...

on 2 September 1899, and for the next six seasons he was a regular at the club, playing either at

left back In the sport of association football, a defender is an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categ ...

. He was a virtual ever-present in the Gunners' 1903–04 promotion-winning season, and captained the club in its inaugural First Division campaign. In all he played 204 League and

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual Single-elimination tournament, knockout association football, football competition in domestic Football in England, English football. First played during ...

matches for Arsenal, scoring one goal. Select season required. He came closest to international recognition while with Arsenal, playing in the March 1905 edition of the

Home Scots v Anglo-Scots Home Scots v Anglo-Scots was an annual association football trial match organised by the Scottish Football Association between the 1890s and 1920s to examine the abilities of possible players for upcoming full British Home Championship internationa ...

annual trial match. Jackson left Arsenal in 1905 to become

, newly admitted to the Southern League, but his spell was brief. In November of that year he signed for

, for whom he was ever-present for the rest of their 1905–06 Southern League season, before rejoining Rangers in 1906. He played in 30 League matches over two seasons at Rangers, before signing for another First Division club, Port Glasgow Athletic, at the start of the 1908–09 season. In January 1910, Jackson refused to play in a

Scottish Cup The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,Scottish Football Association The Scottish Football Association (; also known as the Scottish FA and the SFA) is the governing body of football in Scotland and has the ultimate responsibility for the control and development of football in Scotland. Members of the SFA incl ...

ruled in Jackson's favour as to wages due up until his refusal to play, but confirmed the club fine. He joined

for what remained of the season. In May 1910, he signed for

Greenock Morton Greenock Morton Football Club is a Scottish professional football club, which plays in the . The club was founded as Morton Football Club in 1874, making it one of the oldest Scottish clubs. Morton was renamed Greenock Morton in 1994 to celebr ...

, for whom he played in 22 of their 34 First Division matches. Early in the following season, he signed for Division Two club

, and remained with the Paisley club until 1914–15.

Personal life

Jackson's was a sporting family. He had two sons who became footballers: the elder,

James James may refer to: People * James (given name) * James (surname) * James (musician), aka Faruq Mahfuz Anam James, (born 1964), Bollywood musician * James, brother of Jesus * King James (disambiguation), various kings named James * Prince Ja ...

, played more than 200 times for

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

before being ordained a minister in the

Presbyterian Church Presbyterianism is a historically Reformed Christianity, Reformed Protestantism, Protestant tradition named for its form of ecclesiastical polity, church government by representative assemblies of Presbyterian polity#Elder, elders, known as ...

; the younger,

Archie Archie or Archy is a given name, almost exclusively masculine, and a diminutive of Archibald, which is derived from the Germanic ''ercan'', meaning “ genuine”, and ''bald'', meaning “ bold.” It has been in use as an independent given nam ...

, played for

Sunderland Sunderland () is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. It is a port at the mouth of the River Wear on the North Sea, approximately south-east of Newcastle upon Tyne. It is the most p ...

and

Tranmere Rovers Tranmere Rovers Football Club are a professional association football club based in Birkenhead, Merseyside, England. The team competes in , the fourth level of the English football league system. Founded in 1884 as Belmont Football Club, they ...

. His brother

Andrew Andrew is the English form of the given name, common in many countries. The word is derived from the , ''Andreas'', itself related to ''aner/andros'', "man" (as opposed to "woman"), thus meaning "manly" and, as consequence, "brave", "strong", "c ...

(20 years older) was capped 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 ...

in the 1880s; Andrew's son Andy played for

Middlesbrough Middlesbrough ( ), colloquially known as Boro, is a port town in the Borough of Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire, England. Lying to the south of the River Tees, Middlesbrough forms part of the Teesside Built up area, built-up area and the Tees Va ...

before being killed in

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

. Jimmy's nephew was the Australian

test cricket Test cricket is a Forms of cricket, format of the sport of cricket, considered the game’s most prestigious and traditional form. Often referred to as the "ultimate test" of a cricketer's skill, endurance, and temperament, it is a format of i ...

Archie Jackson Archibald Jackson (5 September 1909 – 16 February 1933), occasionally known as Archibald Alexander Jackson, was an Australian international cricketer who played eight Test matches as a specialist batsman between 1929 and 1931. A teenage pr ...

Notes

References

* For infobox statistics: {{DEFAULTSORT:Jackson, James 1875 births Year of death missing Footballers from Cambuslang Sportsmen from New South Wales Soccer players from New South Wales Australian men's soccer players Scottish men's footballers Men's association football fullbacks Men's association football wing halves Adamstown Rosebud FC players Newton Thistle F.C. players Cambuslang F.C. players Rangers F.C. players Newcastle United F.C. players Arsenal F.C. players Leyton F.C. players West Ham United F.C. players Port Glasgow Athletic F.C. players Hamilton Academical F.C. players Greenock Morton F.C. players Abercorn F.C. players Scottish Junior Football Association players Scottish Football League players English Football League players Scottish emigrants to Australia