Famous Cricketers No 89 - F.S.Jackson

seriously entertained the thought of retirement. Not at least until he had had one last tilt against the Australians. 1905 was Jackson’s year. He topped the England batting and bowling averages. With the ball in hand he turned the course of the First Test at Nottingham in the space of a single over, dismissing Noble, Hill and Darling. In the Third Test he scored the first Test hundred at Headingley. In the Fourth, at Old Trafford, he demoralised the Australians with another century. In all matches against the tourists he scored 776 runs at an average of 70.54. Jackson’s last match of 1905 was at Scarborough for Thornton’s XI against the tourists. He signed off with a batting masterclass on a drying wicket, scoring 123 of his side’s 282 runs. He was at the wicket again on the last afternoon of the match, 31 not out when a storm caused the abandonment of the match. Although Jackson played three further matches in 1906, and one - David Denton’s benefit match at Headingley - in 1907, he effectively retired from ‘big cricket’ at Scarborough in September 1905. Notwithstanding, in June 1907 he was moved to announce that ‘owing to pressure of business’ he was unable to captain England in that summer’s Test matches against South Africa, or to lead England in Australia that winter. Even though he had not played for two years, in 1909, MCC asked him to captain England against the touring Australians. Again, he declined. Although he continued to play the game, his sporting energies turned increasingly to golf after 1905 getting his handicap down to four in 1906. Yet every season he would be found at the Headingley nets, coaching youngsters, conferring with the county coach. The family business was sold in 1913. With the coming of the Great War Jackson returned to the colours. Promoted Lieutenant-Colonel in 1917, he embarked the battalion he had raised, 2/7th (Leeds Rifles) Battalion of the West Yorkshire Regiment, for France. Sickness however, soon forced him home. He had been elected MP for Howdenshire in 1915, denied the opportunity to play his part in France, he became a back bencher in the House of Commons. When his father, Lord Allerton, died in 1917 the barony passed to Jackson’s elder brother but the political mantle fell on his shoulders. In 1921 Jackson was President of MCC. In politics he rose steadily in the Tory hierarchy without threatening to attain the highest offices. In 1923 he became Chairman of the party in the wake of the Tories’ disastrous General Election showing. He was the man Stanley Baldwin entrusted to persuade Winston Churchill to cross to the Tory benches and the man left holding the paper knife when the consequences of the affair of the Zinoviev Letter came home to roost. Knighted in 1926 he left England in 1927 to assume the Governorship of Bengal, where shortly before the end of his tenure in 1932 he survived an assassination attempt. While giving an address at the Senate Hall of Calcutta University five shot were fired at him, all at close range, none of which found their mark. When the commotion had subsided, Jackson and his wife resumed their places and he remarked that ‘it was the quickest duck I’ve ever made’, and resumed his address. 8