Known as 'Pinkie'. Well known African Lepidopterist who also collected beetles. Born in England the son of Brig. General H.K.Jackson and educated at Wellington College and Harper Adams Agricultural College, Shropshire, before travelling to Kenya in 1923. Moved to India but in 1924 returned to Kenya where he spent the rest of his life. After learning to grow coffee and settling on a farm on the slopes of Mt. Elgon, Jackson joined the O.C.T.U. at the outbreak of war, subsequently reaching the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. At the start of the Mau-Mau emergency he volunteered and served in a senior capacity in the Embu district. After the end of the emergency he returned to his farm and continued to improve and increase it until he was brutally murdered by a criminal gang. Jackson was a keen naturalist from his youth. The majority of the beetles collected by him were in his capacity as a member of the British Museum's Ruwenzori Expedition under F.W.Taylor and George Taylor in 1928. His important African Lepidoptera collection was split between the NHM and the Museum at Nairobi which also acquired his library. Smith (1986) pp. 80, 129, records that there are also vast collections of Lepidoptera in the HDO together with MS correspondence with R. Carpenter (1944-52).FRES from 1932. Gilbert (1977) p.186, lists five obituaries including Ent., 101, 1968, pp.191-192. (MD 8/03)
Dates
1903 - 22 May 1968