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===His father===
 
Dr Arthur Randell Jackson (his father 1877-1944) is sometimes known as the “Father of British Arachnology” (the study of spiders and their relatives). He was born in Southport studied Zoology and then Medicine at Liverpool before setting up a practise originally in the Rhondda Valley and then Hexham but moving to Chester in 1905. He lived at "Westcote", now one half of the Bawn Lodge, the other half being "Eastcote" and at one time the home of another MB, Alexander George Hamilton. Described by compatriots as of rugged build both strong and tough Jackson could be cynical but kind and sensitive. As a GP he was noted for his accuracy in diagnosis. He described himself as a “….cyclist, spider hunter and bird watcher.” He was a distinguished amateur scientist and became an acknowledged expert on British spiders discovering 47 new species. He wrote a number of papers and books on the subject and won the Charles Kingsley Medal from the Chester Natural History Society for his work.
 
On the outbreak of the Great War he enlisted in the Royal Army Medical Corps and was appointed a Captain and the Medical Officer of the [https://www.wartimememoriesproject.com/greatwar/allied/battalion.php?pid=7008 9<sup>th</sup> Seaforth Highlanders] with whom he served in France and Flanders from March 1916 until the end of the War. This would have meant he was involved in the Battles of the Somme (Delville Wood, Le Transloy), Scarpe, 1st Passchendaele and Welsh Ridge. Then back to the Somme, followed by action on the Lys, at Outterseene Ridge, Courtrai and Ooteghem.
 
He was noted by his men for his jokes and stories as well as what some of them considered his eccentric habit of collecting natural history samples in the front line, including spiders which he sent back to the likes of [https://www.britishspiders.org.uk/system/files/library/190002.pdf Octavius Pickard-Cambridge] (1828–1917) at Oxford. In late 1917 he was awarded the Military Cross for “… conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty….in his efforts to get in casualties, repeatedly going forward through enemy barrages…” (Edinburgh Gazette March 11<sup>th</sup> 1918).:
 
* "… conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty….in his efforts to get in casualties, repeatedly going forward through enemy barrages…" (Edinburgh Gazette March 11<sup>th</sup> 1918).
On his death in 1944 he donated his personal collection of over a hundred mid-eighteenth century drinking glasses to the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atkinson_Art_Gallery_and_Library Atkinson Museum, Southport] in memory of his son who was killed with the RAF in WW2. Prior to "Westcote" being built it was the site of an earlier public house. He also donated prints by Whistler and a Rembrandt.▼
 
▲On his death in 1944 he donated his personal collection of overaround a hundred mid-eighteenth century drinking glasses to the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atkinson_Art_Gallery_and_Library Atkinson Museum, Southport] in memory of his son who, as noted above, was killed with the RAF in WW2. PriorThis somewhat apt, as prior to "Westcote" being built it was the site of an earlier public house. He also donated prints by Whistler and a Rembrandt.
 
'''Observer 25 March 1944''' carries the Obituary of Dr A R Jackson, which among other details tells us “''Dr Jackson began his practice in Hoole before the last War, in which he served with distinction as a Captain in the RAMC, attached to the Seaforth Highlanders, and was awarded the Military Cross.''”
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