Lives in Cricket No 43 - John Jackson

91 It should be noted that Mahala is also interred at Toxteth Cemetery. She lies in a different plot so they were not re-united in death. Jackson’s sons, Samuel, John and Harold were among the chief mourners as was Kate with her husband Samuel Dovey. Harry did not attend and neither did his now estranged wife, Lucie. She had married William George Collins in 1897 and she had now moved away from Liverpool. The Sugg brothers and a number of other cricketing acquaintances and friends were there to pay their last respects and remember the good times he had had. Despite efforts by the Suggs no headstone was erected until 2009 when a number of relatives, unaware that they were descendants of a famous cricketer, began researching their family tree. They traced the grave and collected £1200 for a proper headstone which was dedicated on 7 September 2009. John Jackson was undoubtedly one of the great mid-Victorian cricketers. He was a genuinely fast bowler and had he had the fast bowler’s touch of nastiness which made him not bother too much about whether he got a batsman out bowled or retired hurt. He was one of the first names on the team sheet for any of the big matches – Gentlemen v Players, AEE XI v United England XI, North v South. Had Test matches been played in those days he would almost certainly have been England’s opening bowler. Both R.D.Walker and W.Caffyn considered that Jackson was the most difficult fast bowler to face in their day. As we have seen he was the subject of a Punch cartoon – the only cricketer to find his way into the pages of Punch Family Life and Decline 1880 to 1901 The inscription on John Jackson’s grave in Toxteth Cemetery, Smithdown Road, Liverpool. [Nottinghamshire CCC]