Admiral of the FleetSir Henry Bradwardine Jackson, GCB, KCVO, FRS (21 January 1855 – 14 December 1929) was a British Royal Navy officer. After serving in the Anglo-Zulu War he established an early reputation as a pioneer of ship-to-ship wireless technology. Later he became the first person to achieve ship-to-ship wireless communications and demonstrated continuous communication with another vessel up to three miles away. He went on to be Third Sea Lord and Controller of the Navy, then Director of the Royal Naval War College and subsequently Chief of the Admiralty War Staff. He was advisor on overseas expeditions planning attacks on Germany's colonial possessions at the start of the First World War and was selected as the surprise successor to Admiral Lord Fisher upon the latter's spectacular resignation in May 1915 following the failure of the Gallipoli Campaign. He had a cordial working relationship with First Lord of the Admiralty (and former Prime Minister) Arthur Balfour, but largely concerned himself with administrative matters and his prestige suffered when German destroyers appeared in the Channel, as a result of which he was replaced in December 1916.
Promoted to commander on 1 January 1890,[4] Jackson became commanding officer of the torpedo school training ship HMS Defiance at Wearde Quay near Saltash in January 1895: at the school he established an early reputation as a pioneer of ship-to-ship wireless technology.[5][6] Promoted to captain on 30 June 1896,[7] he became the first person to achieve ship-to-ship wireless communications and demonstrated continuous communication with another vessel up to three miles away.[5][6] Later trials achieved transmission over distances up to 140 miles, and investigated the effects of intervening land.[8] He became naval attaché in Paris in 1897 and went on to be commanding officer of the cruiserHMS Juno (equipped with wireless) in July 1899 and commanding officer of the torpedo depot ship HMS Vulcan (also equipped with wireless) in the Mediterranean Fleet in December 1899.[2] He worked with Marconi to develop a fleet wireless system and this achievement was recognised with his election as a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1901.[2]
Jackson in 1897 when he was carrying out his early experiments on HMS Defiance
Jackson's 1897 transmitter
Jackson's 1897 receiver
The East Goodwin Lightship in 1898, the first lightvessel to be equipped with wireless
HMS Juno. The cruiser equipped with wireless and commanded by Captain H.B. Jackson during the Summer Manoeuvres of 1899.
Jackson was promoted to vice admiral on 15 March 1911[15] on appointment as Director of the Royal Naval War College.[13] He became Chief of the Admiralty War Staff in February 1913, and having been promoted to full admiral on 10 February 1914,[16] he became advisor on overseas expeditions, planning attacks on Germany's colonial possessions at the start of World War I.[13]
Jackson became President of the Royal Naval College, Greenwich in December 1916[13] and was appointed First and Principal Naval Aide-de-Camp on 2 April 1917.[18] He was also awarded the Grand Cordon of the Japanese Order of the Rising Sun on 2 November 1917.[19] He was promoted to Admiral of the Fleet on 31 July 1919[20] and retired from the Royal Naval College in August 1919.[21] He was appointed the first Chairman of the Radio Research Board of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research in 1920[21] and also won the Hughes Medal from the Royal Society "for his pioneer work in the scientific investigations of radiotelegraphy and its application to navigation" in 1926.[22] In the 1920s, Jackson assisted Winston Churchill by checking some of the facts in his books on the Great War, The World Crisis.[23]
^Manchester, William (1983). The Last Lion, Winston Spencer Churchill: Volume 1 (Visions of Glory 1874–1932) (1 ed.). London: Michael Joseph. p. 767. ISBN0-7181-2275-5.
Sources
Heathcote, Tony (2002). The British Admirals of the Fleet 1734 – 1995. Pen & Sword Ltd. ISBN0-85052-835-6.
Further reading
Murfett, Malcolm (1995). The First Sea Lords from Fisher to Mountbatten. Westport. ISBN0-275-94231-7.
"JACKSON, Admiral of the Fleet Sir Henry Bradwardine". Who Was Who. A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc, 1920–2008; online edn, Oxford University Press. December 2007. Retrieved 2 December 2012.(subscription required)