Qualifications: MBBS Melb (1937) DCH Eng (1942) FRACP (1974) FRACGP Hon (1982) AM DSC

Born: 7/9/1912

Died: 11/11/2006

Biography:
Longevity of membership is not unusual at Brisbane's stately Queensland Club, although few members made as much use of its facilities as did Dr David Jackson. Yet he remained an enigma to many members of the club. A lifelong bachelor who smiled often though rarely laughed, who was, even to those who enjoyed some social intimacy with him, at once intolerant, opinionated, shy, awkward, kind, generous and gentle. He was a pioneering pediatrician and one of the very few who could claim to be, though he would never think of so doing, a genuine war hero.

David Clements Jackson was born at his family home, Moira on River Terrace, Kangaroo Point, in Brisbane. He was the second child of geologist and engineer Clements Jackson and his wife Effie, nee Hart, known as Doris. He attended Kangaroo Point Primary School and the Church of England Grammar School, "Churchie", in East Brisbane.

He began tertiary study at The University of Queensland and subsequently enrolled in the University of Melbourne in 1932 to undertake formal medical studies. He boarded at Trinity College, entering fully into the life of that college in rowing, as editor of its journal and later establishing a bequest to allow other Churchie students to study in Melbourne and board at Trinity.

He began his residency at the Mater Children's Hospital, beginning a lifelong association with that institution and, as it would eventuate, determining his career in pediatrics. With no opportunities for professional development he sailed to Britain in 1939, arriving just as World War II broke out.

He immediately volunteered for the Royal Navy, securing a position at Birmingham Children's Hospital while waiting to be called up. For various reasons this did not occur until August 1941, when he was appointed a Surgeon Lieutenant in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve on the destroyer, HMS Worcester. The ship was soon in action in the North Atlantic but, on the night of February 12, 1942, the German battleships Scharnhorst, Gneisenau and the Prinz Eugen, a heavy cruiser, made a bolt from Brest Harbour where they had been blockaded by the Royal Navy. HMS Worcester lay in their path and in the subsequent engagement, the outgunned Worcester took several hits and was badly damaged, at one stage at night losing all power. Jackson was knocked unconscious by an exploding shell. Upon recovering, he began treating the wounded, many with multiple shrapnel wounds, some requiring amputation, working in appalling conditions, often by the light of a torch. By the time Worcester limped into Harwich harbour under its own steam, 24 of the ship's 139 crew were dead or missing and 70 wounded. Dr Jackson was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, which was presented to him by King George VI at Buckingham palace.

While serving ashore with the top secret, experimental HMS Dolphin, which was developing the X-craft human torpedoes, he found time to complete a Diploma of Child Health through the Royal College of Physicians.

He returned to Australia in 1946 and devoted his working life to the speciality of pediatrics. For 45 years he practised as a consultant from his rooms at Craigston, two floors below his home. His clinical forte was children with cerebral palsy and, in addition to private practice, he was involved in teaching, lecturing, writing and examining pediatric students and was a member at one stage of 13 related committees.

At a meeting at Lennon’s Hotel in 1949, he chaired the first meeting which resolved to establish a national professional association of pediatricians.

Dr Jackson retired from university practice in 1975, but retained a small private practice.

A committed pipe smoker from the age of 18, he lamented the day the Queensland Club's smoking room, where he was almost a fixture, was finally forced to ban the practice.

He always carried in his pocket a button from his naval jacket which had been damaged by shrapnel during the Dover Straits battle and which he believed had saved his life.

He could recite poetry at length and kept a catalogue of limericks, good and bad, in his head.

In the Australia Day honours list of 1984 he was made a Member of the Order of Australia for his service to medicine, particularly the disabled.

A prolific writer and historian, he catalogued not just his own life but also wrote the second volume of the history of the Queensland Club.

Author: R EASTGATE

References: Adapted from Courier Mail 5th December 2006 with the permission of the author.