Jackson, DW

Lieutenant Douglas William Jackson

Douglas was born on May 24th 1876, the eldest of six children of solicitor Arthur Jackson, himself an OA, and his wife, Mary. He joined Dulwich in the summer of 1887, shortly after his eleventh birthday, and during his time at the College was a boarder in Elm Lawn. In 1893 he was a member of the both the 1st XV, and the cricket 2nd XI, before leaving that Christmas. From Dulwich he went to work in the City, taking employment at a solicitor’s office whilst also studying law, ultimately going on to pass the Law Society’s Final Exam. He gave this up to serve in the Boer War, where he was a member of Paget’s Horse. Following the completion of the war he was transferred to West Africa, where, between 1902 and 1904, he held the position of Assistant District Commissioner in Southern Nigeria before being reassigned to Ireland as a member of the 4th Battalion Dublin Fusiliers. In 1907 he went over to Canada, where he enlisted in the Royal North-West Mounted Police, ultimately rising to the rank of Sergeant.
In 1915, having completed his attestation in the Mounties, Douglas returned to England, intending to join up and do his bit for the war effort, to which end he took up a commission in the Shropshire Light Infantry in 1916. He was made a member of the 1st Battalion of his new regiment, with whom he went over to the continent for the first time in early 1917. A few months later he was dead, killed in action at Bethune on May 18th, less than a week shy of his forty-first birthday.