Frederick Stanley Jackson

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For other persons of a similar name see Frederick Jackson.

Frederick Stanley Jackson is a former Cornish rugby union player (16 Cornish caps) who played 'forward' for Camborne RFC, Leicester RFC and represented A.F.Harding's Anglo/Welsh British Lions team in their tour to Australia and New Zealand in 1908. He was the Tigers' leading scorer in 1906-07. He was reputed to be a powerful goal-kicker and was the star of Cornwall's championship-winning side in 1908 when he led the way in the 17-3 final win against Durham in front of 17,000 spectators at Redruth R.F.C.s Recreation Ground.^[1] He also went on to win an Olympic rugby silver medal in 1908. Jackson was suspended and recalled from the 1908 Lions tour of New Zealand - where he was considered the tourists' best forward - to be investigated by the Rugby Football Union for professionalism (apparently unfounded). Leaving his close friend and Leicester team-mate John Jackett in tears on the wind-swept dockside, he sailed from Wellington to Sydney on the Maitai but, for whatever reason, decided he could not return to Cornwall and slipped back to New Zealand unannounced to marry a Maori woman he had met.^[2] They had four children, one of whom, Everard, became a noted All Blacks prop.^[3] The Lions tour brochure reported that Jackson was born in Camborne and educated at the Camborne School of Mines. The 1908 Anglo-Welsh side (Irish and Scottish unions did not participate) performed well in all the non-test matches, but drew a test against New Zealand and lost the other two. Jackson returned to rugby union and became an East Coast selector when he lived in Hawkes Bay. He died in Auckland on April 15, 1957.

[edit] References

1. ^ The First Hundred Years - The story of rugby in Cornwall by Tom Salmon 1983 (published by the Cornwall RFU)
2. ^ RFU - The Mystery of Frederick Jackson
3. ^ All Blacks.com - Everard Jackson