Richard Jackson (Liberal politician)

Born in Newington in north Kent, Jackson was the son of John Jackson of Sittingbourne, a surveyor, and his wife Harriet née Tress of Upchurch.{{cite news|title=Biographies Of New Members |date=19 January 1906|work=The Times|page=15}}{{cite web|url=http://www.ukwhoswho.com/view/article/oupww/whowaswho/U21184|title=JACKSON, Richard Stephens|date=December 2007|work=Who Was Who|accessdate=4 September 2011}} Following education at Elm House School in Sittingbourne, he spent some time as a merchant seaman,{{sfn|Purser|1933|p=14}} before being admitted as a solicitor in 1872.{{cite journal|year=1938|journal=The Solicitors' Journal|volume=82|page=490}}{{cite journal|year=1938|journal=The Law Times|volume=185|page=482}} He practised in that Sittingbourne, Greenwich and London. As of 1895, he was practising at Thorner's Chambers, Ingham Court, 167 Fenchurch Street.{{cite book |title=Court Directory, 1895 |url=http://specialcollections.le.ac.uk/digital/api/collection/p16445coll4/id/28134/download |page=2841}}

He entered politics when he was elected to represent Greenwich on the first London County Council in January 1889. He was a member of the majority Progressive Party on the council, which was allied to the parliamentary Liberal Party.The County Councils - London Polls, The Times, 18 January 1889, p.9 He was re-elected in 1892.The London County Council Election, The Times, 7 March 1892, p.10 On the council he took a particular interest in progressing the construction of the Blackwall Tunnel. He lost his county council seat in 1895 to a member of the Conservative-backed Moderate Party, largely due to the intervention of an Independent Labour Party candidate.The London County Council Election, The Times, 4 March 1895, p.7

Jackson contested the 1900 general election as the Liberal Party's candidate at Greenwich, standing against the sitting Conservative MP Lord Hugh Cecil. Jackson failed to be elected, with Cecil retaining the seat by a majority of nearly 2,000 votes.{{cite news|title=The General Election |date=16 January 1906|work=The Times|page=10}}

Jackson was a member of the Greenwich Vestry and Board of Works. In 1900 the vestry was abolished and the County of London was divided into twenty-eight metropolitan boroughs, with the first elections to the new borough councils held 1 November 1900. Jackson was elected to Greenwich Borough Council as a Progressive Party councillor, representing the South Ward.{{cite news|title=The London Borough Elections |date=2 November 1900|work=The Times|page=4}} He was mayor of Greenwich in 1902–1903.

At the general election of 1906 Jackson again stood at Greenwich in opposition to Lord Hugh Cecil. The Conservative vote was split between Cecil, who advocated free trade and Ion Hamilton Benn who stood as an advocate of Tariff Reform. Jackson won the seat for the Liberals with a majority over Benn 1,341 votes. Cecil finished a poor third. Jackson only served one term in parliament, and was defeated by Benn at the next election in January 1910.

Jackson resumed his legal practice. He eventually retired to Blackheath, where he died in June 1938, aged 88. Following a funeral at St Alfege Church, Greenwich, he was buried in Shooters Hill Cemetery.{{cite news|title=Deaths|date=11 June 1938|work=The Times|page=1}}

Jackson and his wife, Mary Ann, née Bell, had nine children, one of whom died in infancy. Their sixth, William Henry Jackson,{{Cite news| issn = 0140-0460| pages = 14| title = Mr. R. S. Jackson| work = The Times| accessdate = 2019-12-26| date = 1938-06-11| url = http://tinyurl.gale.com/tinyurl/CZJRV9}} was an Anglican priest who served as a missionary in Burma (now Myanmar),{{sfn|Purser|1933}} and invented Burmese Braille.

Not long after the birth of William, the family moved to Stobcross Lodge, at Crooms Hill, Blackheath, where they remained for around two decades.{{sfn|Purser|1933|p=13}}

Mary Ann's death in late July or early August 1931 preceded that of William, which was in December that year.{{sfn|Purser|1933|p=79}}

• {{Rayment-hc|date=March 2012}}
• {{cite book |last1=Purser |first1=Mary Chesmer |title=An Ambassador in Bonds: The Story of William Henry Jackson, Priest, of the Mission to the Blind of Burma |date=1933 |publisher=Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts |edition=2 |url=https://archive.org/details/ambassadorinbond00mary }}

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• {{Hansard-contribs | mr-richard-jackson | Richard Jackson }}

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{{succession box

| title = Member of Parliament for Greenwich

| years = 1906–1910

| before = Lord Hugh Cecil

| after = Ion Hamilton Benn

}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Jackson, Richard Stephens}}

Category:1850 births

Category:1938 deaths

Category:Liberal Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies

Category:UK MPs 1906–1910

Category:Members of London County Council

Category:Progressive Party (London) politicians

Category:Members of Greenwich Metropolitan Borough Council

Category:People from Newington, Swale

Category:Mayors of places in Greater London