Alf Jackson

Alf Jackson
Personal information
Full name	Alfred Jackson
Date of birth	(1887-10-25)25 October 1887
Place of birth	Brunswick, Victoria
Date of death	21 September 1964(1964-09-21) (aged 76)
Place of death	Bundoora, Victoria
Original team(s)	Melbourne Grammar
Playing career^1
Years	Club	Games (Goals)
1907, 1909	Essendon	13 (0)
^1 Playing statistics correct to the end of 1909.
Career highlights
AIF Pioneer Exhibition Game, London, 28 October 1916
Sources: AFL Tables, AustralianFootball.com

Alfred Jackson OBE (25 October 1887 – 21 September 1964) was an Australian military officer and an Australian rules footballer who played for the Essendon Football Club in the Victorian Football League (VFL).[1]

Family

The son of Alfred Jackson (1858-1901),[2] and Sarah Ann Jackson (1860-1952), née Williams, later Mrs Fisenden,[3] Alfred Jackson was born in Brunswick, Victoria on 25 October 1887.

Football

The Australian Training Units Team: 28 October 1916.[4] Alf Jackson is the second from the right in the middle row.

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.[5][6]

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 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.[7]

In World War II, Jackson served as a Lieutenant Colonel in the 3rd Ambulance Brigade.[7]

See also

• 1916 Pioneer Exhibition Game

Notes

1. Holmesby, Russell; Main, Jim (2014). The Encyclopedia of AFL Footballers: every AFL/VFL player since 1897 (10th ed.). Seaford, Victoria: BAS Publishing. p. 430. ISBN 978-1-921496-32-5.
2. Deaths: Jackson, The Argus, (Tuesday, 24 December 901), p.1.
3. Deaths: Fisenden, The Argus, (Monday 18 August 1952), p.14.
4. Detail of Organised by Australian Olympic swimmer Lieutenant Frank Beaurepaire, etc., in the collection of the Australian War Memorial (Accession number: H16688).
5. The original newsreel: Australian Football (Pathé Newsreel, 1916) on YouTube
6. The 2019 remastered and colourised version of the original newsreel: Australian Football (Pathé Newsreel, 1916), remastered and colourised version (2019) on YouTube
7. Cullen, Barbara (2015). Harder than football : league players at war. Richmond, Victoria: Slattery Media Group. p. 165. ISBN 978-0-992379-14-8.

References

• Photographs at Group portrait of officers of the 7th Battalion on the Aegean island of Lemnos (C01190), collection of the Australian War Memorial, and 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. ISBN 0-9591740-2-8
• 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

• Alf Jackson's playing statistics from AFL Tables
• Fred Jackson at australianfootball.com