Lives in Cricket No 43 - John Jackson

87 Family Life and Decline 1880 to 1901 present, and there are good reasons to believe that the pair had gone their separate ways by then. John is shown on the 1891 census as living at 4 Frederick Street, Liverpool 1, in the seedy Park Lane area of the city where brothels and cheap ‘doss- houses’ were the normal accommodation. John Jackson was by now on skid row, living in a common lodging-house with 14 other men of various ages and occupations, the oldest being 76 and the youngest 18. None are listed as ‘retired’. John is shown as a ‘cotton porter’. In those days you either worked until you dropped or you went in the workhouses, stigmatised as a failure. Quite how Jackson had come to fall so far is something of a mystery. We do know that he was not by any means the only professional cricketer to fall upon hard times after his career had finished. Indeed, Ted Pooley, the old Surrey and England wicketkeeper and a near contemporary with Jackson, also ended his days in poverty as a workhouse resident. Others, unable to cope with the loss of fame and the camaraderie of their fellow professionals, opted to take their own lives. Their moving stories are told by David Frith in his book, By their own Hand . Bobby Peel, the great Yorkshire 1891 Census. Jackson is now described as a cotton porter. Mahala Jackson’s 1891death certificate with Jackson described as a professional cricketer.