2nd Lieutenant Arthur Gordon Jackson

Born c.1890, Arthur Gordon Jackson was the eldest son of Mitcham clergyman Reverend Sydney Jackson and his wife, Helen. For many years Arthur’s father was employed as the chaplain at the Holborn Union Workhouse in Mitcham and the Holborn Industrial Schools. The latter was a vast building that provided accommodation and training for over 1000 pauper children. During World War One it was converted into a military hospital.

During the early 1890s Arthur and his younger brother Henry were living at Prospect House, a large property on the eastern edge of Fair Green, Mitcham, together with their parents, their maternal grandmother and a domestic servant. By 1905 the family had moved to White Heather on Graham Road Mitcham.

Arthur was educated at Christ’s Hospital, a leading private school based in Horsham. He then worked as an insurance clerk but enlisted as a private in the Public School’s Battalion following the outbreak of war. After eight months in the trenches of the Western Front, he returned to England and was awarded a commission as 2nd Lieutenant in the South Lancashire Regiment. After training he was sent to Mesopotamia (now Iraq).

Despite the death of his younger brother at the Battle of the Somme in July 1916, Arthur remained devoted to King and Country. Newspaper accounts suggest that he was both a popular and fearless platoon leader. On 25 February 1917, he braved heavy machine gun fire to lead several assaults along a deep water course. During an attempt to drive back Turkish forces, he was shot through the head and killed. His body was retrieved and buried when British troops resumed control of the area the next morning. Arthur was awarded a posthumous Distinguished Conduct Order and is commemorated on panel 23 of the Basra Memorial in Iraq. One of his men, Private Readitt, survived the attack and was later awarded a Victoria Cross for outstanding gallantry.