John Wallace Jackson, assistant astronomer, was the son of James Jackson and his wife Ann, born Clark. He worked as an assistant at the Royal Observatory, Cape of Good Hope, from 1903 to 1946. After private study he passed the examination in the Theory of Land Surveying of the University of the Cape of Good Hope in 1904. After 1926 he gradually took over the programme of observations with the Victoria telescope aimed at the photographic determination of stellar parallax that was conducted by H.S. Jones, His Majesty's Astronomer at the Cape from 1923 to 1933. John Wallace Jackson, who was not married, should not be confused with John Jackson, who succeeded H.S. Jones as H.M. Astronomer from 1933 to 1950. John Jackson continued the parallax work of his predecessor, presumably with the assistance of John Wallace Jackson, and published the results in the Annals of the Cape Observatory during 1935-1952.

List of sources:

FamilySearch: John Wallace Jackson. https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C91J-LLSX?view=index&personArk=/ark:/61903/1:1:DHJP-TNPZ&action=view&cc=3732506 AND https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/details/LBDL-QC2

Harold Spencer Jones. Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society, 1961, Vol. 7, pp. 137-145.

National Automated Archival Information Retrieval System (NAAIRS), at http://www.national.archives.gov.za/naairs.htm Document relating to John Wallace Jackson.

University of the Cape of Good Hope. Calendar, 1906/7.

Warner, B. Astronomers at the Royal Observatory, Cape of Good Hope (p.129). Cape Town: Balkema, 1979.

Compiled by: C. Plug

Last updated: 2024-12-09 12:03:02