JACKSON, James Sidney
| Service Number: | 7076 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | 8 October 1917, 21st Reinforcements |
| Last Rank: | Private |
| Last Unit: | 15th Infantry Battalion |
| Born: | Ipswich, Queensland, 25 February 1885 |
| Home Town: | West End, Brisbane, Queensland |
| Schooling: | Not yet discovered |
| Occupation: | Contractor |
| Died: | Railway Accident, Clermont, Queensland, 9 March 1945, aged 60 years |
| Cemetery: |
Blair Athol Cemetery, Queensland |
| Memorials: |
World War 1 Service
| 8 Oct 1917: | Enlisted AIF WW1, Private, 7076, 25th Infantry Battalion, 21st Reinforcements | |
|---|---|---|
| 16 Nov 1917: | Involvement Private, 7076, 25th Infantry Battalion, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '15' embarkation_place: Sydney embarkation_ship: SS Canberra embarkation_ship_number: '' public_note: '' | |
| 16 Nov 1917: | Embarked Private, 7076, 25th Infantry Battalion, SS Canberra, Sydney | |
| 5 Dec 1918: | Transferred AIF WW1, Private, 15th Infantry Battalion | |
| 18 Apr 1919: | Discharged AIF WW1, Private, 7076, 15th Infantry Battalion, RTA: SS Ceramic, departing England 5-1-1919 |
Help us honour James Sidney Jackson's service by contributing information, stories, and images so that they can be preserved for future generations.
Add my storyBiography contributed by Karen Standen
James Sidney Jackson was a married man with a young family when he enlisted in the A.I.F. in 1917. He had been in the Army for just three weeks when he was granted two days 'home leave', and less than six weeks when he sailed aboard the SS Canberra, bound for England.
Completing his training, James proceeded overseas to France towards the end of April 1918 and joined the 25th Battalion in the field a few weeks later. James was immediately in the thick of it, with the Battalion participating in battles at Morlancourt and Hamel. After three months in the field, James contracted influenza and trench fever. Evacuated to England, he would take the best part of four months to fully recover, by which time his Battalion had participated in its final action and was in the process of being disbanded. In essence, the war was over as the armstice had also been signed. .As a result, when James marched into the Training Brigade in December, he was transferred to the 15th Battalion and by January, was aboard the SS Ceramic returning home.
Putting his war experiences behind him, James found employment with Queensland Railways. Over the next decade, James was responsible for a chain of railway sawmills operated during the construction of the Queensland North Coast railway line between Rockhampton and Mackay, and eventually took on the position of timber inspector and manager at the Birimgan sawmill near Blair Athol in North Queensland.
It was here in this small community where James and his wife Eliza raised their two boys, Dick (William Hubert Jackson) and Wattie (Cyril Wattie Jackson (/explore/people/633620)), born after his father's return from the war. Having already known the pain of losing their only daughter Stella in 1917, James and Eliza would mourn the loss of their youngest child, Wattie, when he was killed in a RAAF training exercise in NSW during WW2.
As part of his job, James regularly travelled the district on his rail motor cycle. Friday the 9th March 1945 was no exception, however on this day, James 'was killed about three miles from town, when overtaken by a train travelling from Blair Athol to Clermont'. James Sidney Jackson was laid to rest at the Blair Athol cemetery.
Click images to start slideshow.