He was brought up and educated inNelson, Lancashire. He was apprenticed in pharmacy beforeWorld War II. However, at the outbreak of war, he left to volunteer for theR.A.F. in which he served for six years. He flew withNo. 31 Squadron RAF in India andBurma, flying in much needed supplies to the14th Army who were stranded behind Japanese lines, for which he was mentioned in despatches.
After the war he became a schoolmaster. He taught geography and science in Nelson andRedcar, during which time he would voluntarily undertake extracurricular activities after school hours and weekends introducing his students to the mountains.
He was an avid and skilful photographer, something that lasted throughout his life, much of this work was used on lecture tours around the world, books that he wrote, pictures and detailed information for books that other people requested for their publications, magazine articles, the BBC etc.
Kangchenjunga reunion at Pen-y-Gwryd June 199030th Anniversary of Plas y Brenin. G.I. Milton, Justin Evans, Sir Jack Longland, Dave Alcock, John A Jackson and John Barry
He started climbing on theYorkshire Moors, and later moved to theLake District andScotland. His experience as a first-class rock climber was crucial to becoming Instructor and later Chief Instructor at the RAF Mountaineering Centre atSonamarg inKashmir.
1944 Chief Instructor at the R.A.F. Mountain Training Centre, KashmirHimalaya[1]
1952 Member of the British N.W.Garhwal Expedition – Central Himalaya withJohn Kempe.[2] They went on to attempt an ascent of the unclimbed 6,500 metres (21,300 ft)Nilkanta, on the route they bivouaced at 16,000’ and 17,000’, but ultimately they were defeated by heavy snow.[3]
1953 First reserve on the first ascent of Chomolungma (Mount Everest) (pre-monsoon), and was involved with all initial training including climbing inNorth Wales with oxygen tanks. Jackson was a full member of the post monsoon expedition, however as the first expedition summited the post monsoon expedition was cancelled.[1] Further related information can be found in thePen-y-Gwryd article.
1955 Published his first book,More than Mountains.[3]
1955 Member of the successful1955 British Kangchenjunga expedition which made thefirst ascent of the 8,586 metres (28,169 ft) mountain, the third-highest in the world.[5] He reached and set up camp five (out of six) with Tom Mackinon. The entire group would have summited except for the encroaching monsoon which prevented this.
Early 1960 was a Senior member of SirJohn Hunt's expedition to North EastGreenland,Stauning Alps.[6] A mixed group of mountaineers and scientists which also included 18Duke of Edinburgh Gold Award winners - who were a credit to the expedition. Jackson was a big proponent of the Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme.
1960 He became the second Director/Warden ofPlas y Brenin for a further sixteen years until 1976.
During his tenure at Plas y Brenin, to highlight just a few achievements:
First dry ski slope in North Wales built mainly by staff but in the main by Richard McHardy, it was a great success and would attract people from all over Wales and England.
The first cross-country dry ski track in Wales and possibly the UK, later tested and used by the British Biathlon Team.
Two snow-making projects, the first being at Rhyddolion above Betws-y-Coed North Wales using an underpowered compressor, the second being at Bryn Engan, Plas y Brenin with a more powerful compressor.
Instigator of the Mountain Leader Training Board along withSir Jack Longland, the MLT Certificate and the Mountain Instructor Certificate.
Built the first all-weather training pool for teaching canoeing and life-saving skills and still very much in action to this day.
He understood the value of marketing and would devote a good part of his time single-handedly lecturing to colleges, universities, Local Education Authorities, schools, Mountaineering – Climbing – Walking and ski clubs (anyone who wanted to use the outdoors) to encourage people to use the Centre; his approach proved an enormous success and was pivotal in establishing Plas y Brenin as a world leader in outdoor education.
Took the first early ski and ski mountaineering groups to the ItalianDolomites; these were the "Dolomiti Superski" courses atPlas Menai and now are now mainstay activities at both outdoor centres.
It was always a high point when staff took up prominent positions or created their own projects that became successful. For example, Don Roscoe and Barbara Spark went on to run the Outdoor Education Department atUCNW Bangor, Dave Alcock went on from being a Mountaineering Instructor to be the Director of Plas y Brenin for eleven years, Roger Orgill was twice Chief Instructor (after resigning at least once) was an avid committee man and was awarded an MBE.
1963 Member of Trans-Pindus Expedition, Greece – LeaderJohn Hunt
1970s PublishedSafety on Mountains for the CCPR in the very early 1970s, which reached its 8th reprint by 1972 (18p).
1976 "The Himachal Expedition": with his wife Eileen, he made a nine-month overland journey from Anglesey, Wales to Nepal and back, some 18,000 miles, in a specially strengthened camper van. En route, they gathered a wealth of photographic narrative, used in educational lecture tours in later life and indeed still used today as reference material by many periodicals.
1978 Became the first Director of the then namedPlas y Deri, later to becomePlas Menai Water Sports Centre near Caernarfon for the "Sports Council of Wales".[1] Again he vigorously took to the lecture circuit indirectly marketing the centre. During this time he developed many new idea above and beyond his purview.
1981 Leader of the Gorphwysfa Expedition to S.E. Garhwal – Nanda Devi/Trisul area, made ascent ofBethartoli Himal South c. 21,000 ft.[7]
1987 Leader of Canadian, Laurentian University, Sudbury, Ontario, Outdoor Adventure Leadership Programme, Physical Education Study Tour "Kashmir Himalaya Expedition 1987". ClimbedKolahoi and researched Mini-Ice-Age in the area as well as study of alpine flora and climate of the region by Professors Courtin and Beckett, Biology Department Laurentian University.
Within the public engagement framework rules laid down by the CCPR that effectively prevented him from actually sitting on committees of external bodies, he extensively guided major governing bodies, i.e. theBritish Mountaineering Council and the Mountain Leadership Training Board, to become involved with all aspects of "Outdoor Pursuits", not solely the climbing aspects.
With the assistance of a grant made by the then Sports MinisterDennis Howell, he was able to build the canoe training pool, extend the dry ski slope and provide a Bar which added greatly to the existing facilities of the Centre.
It is important to relate that he did not do this for money – he received no payment for these services as he considered it his "hobby" – he did this work for the love of travel, for the people who wanted to experience the mountains he held in such high regard.
In June 2005, he was interviewed for the last time, byJamie Owen forBBC Wales during the making of a series of documentaries for Welsh television"Welsh Journeys". In this interview, he again re-affirmed his love for mountains, Wales, lives experiences and also the view that mountains were for everybody.
John A Jackson with wife Eileen, Annapurna II 1996
John Jackson,Safety on Mountains (revised for the (BMC) British Mountaineering Council 1974/1975 Reprinted 1976, Illustrated by Reg Cartwright,ISBN0-903908-20-4)
John Jackson, John Barry, Tim Jepson,Safety on Mountains: An Approach to Mountain Adventure for Beginners (BMC, 1988/1989,ISBN0-903908-95-6)
John Angelo Jackson,Adventure Travels in the Himalaya (First published in 2005 by Indus Publishing, New Delhi,ISBN81-7387-175-2, www.indusbooks.com), Foreword byHarish Kapadia
"The Alpine Journal", Vol. 66, No. 303, 1961. pp. 250–260,1960 Greenland Expedition by J.A. Jackson,A. Blackshaw andIan McNaught-Davis[6]
"The Himalayan Journal", No. 41, pp. 25 & 41, 1988
"The Alpine Journal" – 50th Anniversary of the Ascent ofKangchenjunga",The Alpine Journal, 2005.[12]
"The Splendid Enterprise – The First Fifty Years of Plas y Brenin The National Mountain Centre (UK)", by Lyndsey King, Published 2006,ISBN978-0-9554675-0-9
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Media related toJohn Angelo Jackson at Wikimedia Commons