In today’s Story from the Museum Floor, Michael Whitworth takes a look at Dr Arthur Randall Jackson. Michael is the Head of Commercial Operations, but also has a keen interest in the Museum’s archives and the impact of war on the University of Manchester and the people who have shaped Manchester Museum as we know it today.
Arthur Randall Jackson (1877-1944)
Dr Arthur Randall Jackson is sometimes known as the “Father of British Arachnology”. Born in Southport in 1877 he studied Medicine and Zoology at Liverpool before setting up a practise originally in Hexham but moving to Chester in 1905. Described by compatriots as of rugged build both strong and tough he could be cynical but kind and sensitive. As a GP he was noted for his accuracy in diagnosis. He described himself as a “….cyclist, spider hunter and bird watcher.” He was a distinguished amateur scientist and became an acknowledged expert on British spiders discovering 47 new species. He wrote a number of papers and books on the subject and won the Charles Kingsley Medal for his work.
Dr Arthur Randall Jackson M.D, D.Sc. M.Sc. M.C (Image courtesy of Dr Eric Duffey)
The Great War
On the outbreak of the Great War he enlisted in the Royal Army Medical Corps and was appointed a Captain and the Medical Officer of the 9th Seaforth Highlanders with whom he served in France and Flanders from March 1916 until the end of the War.
Seaforth Highlanders recruiting poster (Image: Kim Traynor – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0)
He was noted by his men for his jokes and stories as well as what some of them considered his eccentric habit of collecting natural history samples in the front line. In late 1917 he was awarded the Military Cross for “… conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty….in his efforts to get in casualties, repeatedly going forward through enemy barrages…” (Edinburgh Gazette March 11th 1918)
Connections with Manchester Museum
His links to the Museum came through his membership of the Cheshire and Lancashire Natural History Society and a longstanding friendship with the Museum Director Walter Tattersall and he seems to have been donating samples to the Museum from long before the War and is fleetingly mentioned in the 1915 Museum Year Book. He sent samples from the Trenches back to Manchester Museum and kept up a lively correspondence with the Museum’s temporary Wartime Director Thomas Coward. It’s through some of these letters that we see his zeal to collect and study even in the midst of War and also some of his personal feelings such as this excerpt from a letter to the Museum dated September 1918.
Correspondence from the Manchester Museum Collection
“Imagine Tattersall hasn’t been over yet!* I am awfully tired of it, but there is no escape, nor home service for the likes of me. Whether I shall have any Natural History work when I return I don’t know. My practice at Chester has vanished and possibly I may have to move elsewhere or even emigrate. Anyhow all my old habits have been broken up and retired and physically and mentally I`m not what I was three years ago.”
* Tattersall was the Director of Manchester Museum, then serving in the Royal Garrison Artillery.
After the War however he didn’t emigrate but re-built his practice and became a keen gardener and a collector of art and antiques. On his death in 1944 he donated his personal collection to the Atkinson Museum, Southport in memory of his son who was killed with the RAF in WW2. The items he sent back to Manchester Museum from the trenches are still here and form part of the Natural History Collection alongside some of his wartime letters.
Mike Whitworth
Manchester Museum
With many thanks to Michael for sharing this biographical research, and for other #peopleofMcrMuseum, have a look at this post about Captain Thomas Brown.
Stories from the Museum Floor 