His father, George, was a prominent businessman who was passionate about the theatre, reportedly naming his son for renowned British stage actor Barry Sullivan.

The young Jackson saw his first Shakespeare production, The Taming of the Shrew, performed by the Frank Benson Company when he was ten years old.

In his teenage years, he travelled around Europe, visiting Greece and Italy, living in Geneva for eighteen months where he studied French and learnt to paint.

He desired to become an artist, but his father persuaded him to take a job in the architect's office of Frank Osborn in Birmingham, beginning working there in 1897.

The theatre rapidly became home to one of the most famous and exciting repertory theatre companies in the country with the repertoire ranging from innovative modern dress Shakespeare, medieval moralities, Greek drama and modern experimental drama, as well as presenting many world premieres including George Bernard Shaw's epic Back to Methuselah in 1923.

[4] As the theatre's reputation grew more talent was to develop on its stage with the likes of Paul Scofield, Julie Christie, Albert Finney and Derek Jacobi.

Peter Brook directed at the Rep just after World War II and transferred with Sir Barry and Paul Scofield to Stratford.

From 1929 to 1937, he joined forces with the Malvern Theatre manager, Roy Limbert to put on an annual summer festival.

After coming to Birmingham to see Heartbreak House, George Bernard Shaw struck up a friendship with Jackson and consequently wrote The Apple Cart for the festival's first season.

The actors and production staff who toured at Malvern from Birmingham found the setting and the work enjoyable and worthwhile.

His relationship with the chairman of the governors, Fordham Flower, was uneasy from the start as Jackson insisted in bringing in his own staff and using a completely new company of actors.

The hit of the first season in 1946 was Love's Labour's Lost, directed by Peter Brook and starring Paul Scofield as Armado.

But, despite their protests his contract was extended to three years, this demonstrated a recognition that in order to establish real change he needed more time.

After a long period of severe illness, Sir Barry Jackson died 3 April 1961, at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, aged 81.