John Jackson (astronomer)

During the summer of 1903 he studied hard to improve his knowledge of Latin, which saw him pass the university entrance exam sufficiently well to be awarded a £25 bursary.

Graduating in 1907 with a first class honours Master of Arts degree in mathematics and natural philosophy, he was then awarded a fellowship of £100 a year for further study.

The following year he undertook a Bachelor of Science degree, again at Glasgow University, with special distinction in mathematics, natural philosophy, astronomy and chemistry, winning medals in most of these subjects.

[2] As there seemed to be no possibility of obtaining an appointment in astronomy at Glasgow, Jackson decided to go to Cambridge University, and, after taking the entrance exam, was awarded a major scholarship to study at Trinity College as an ordinary undergraduate in 1909.

He already knew as much spherical and dynamic astronomy as was then taught at Cambridge, but was introduced to new subjects including solar physics and astrophysics, whilst also furthering his knowledge of pure and applied mathematics.

The first extensive task he undertook was to prepare for publication all of the observations he had made of double stars, working on this with Herbert Hall Turner, the Savilian Professor of Astronomy at Oxford University.

In 1933 a vacancy arose for the position of His Majesty's Astronomer at Royal Observatory, Cape of Good Hope, South Africa.

In 1952 John Jackson was awarded The Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society[1] for his work on stellar parallaxes and his contributions to the general problems of star positions and proper motions.