Henry Moore Jackson

Henry Moore Jackson

Knight, born in Grenada, 1849; died in London, 29 August, 1908. The youngest son of the Anglican Bishop of the Leeward Islands, he was educated in England at Marlborough and Clifton Colleges, and at the Royal Military Academy. He entered the Royal Artillery in 1870, retiring with the rank of captain in 1885. He entered the colonial service in 1880, when he was appointed commandant of the Sierra Leone police. He was commissioner for Turks and Caicos Islands, 1885-90, and Colonial Secretary of the Bahama Islands, 1890-93. As Colonial Secretary of Gibraltar, 1894-1901, it fell to his lot to carry out the plans for the new harbour works, which had already received the approval of the Admiralty and of the War Office. His early scientific training enabled him to point out defects in the plans, and to suggest improvements which saved the Government much useless expenditure. In recognition of his efficiency he was made in 1899 a Knight Commander of the Most Distinguished Order of St. Michael and St. George. In 1901 he was appointed Governor of the Leeward Islands, and after holding this position for less than one year was appointed Governor of the Fiji Islands and High Commissioner of the Western Pacific. After a careful study of the difficult problems which he there found awaiting a solution, he drew up an exhaustive report, accompanied with a series of recommendations which were accepted almost without modification by the Colonial Office. In Fiji he showed a very remarkable power of inspiring the natives with a belief in the justice of English rule, and with personal attachment to himself. This power he exhibited also in Trinidad, to which he was appointed in 1904. When he landed the colony was still suffering from the consequences of the serious riots, which had recently occurred. After three years of untiring labour the state of feeling in the colony was entirely changed. He became a Catholic in 1880, and from the day of his reception into the Church he never willingly missed daily Mass. In recognition of his services to the Church in the various colonies with which he was connected, he was made a member of the Order of St. Gregory the Great in 1904, and as recognition of his great services to the State, the king conferred on him, shortly before his death, the Grand Cross of St. Michael and St. George.

C. SCHREINER