George Kenneth (Ken) Jackson was Assistant in Ethnology at the Queensland Museum 1937-1943. A naturalist from his childhood he developed an interest in Aboriginal studies and collected Aboriginal artefacts while a jackaroo on Thylungara Station in south west Queensland. He joined the museum in 1937 and was a protégé of the Director Heber Longman specialising in “ethnology”. He enlisted in the 2/9 Battalion (a Queensland unit) in 1939 and served in the UK, Syria, Palestine and North Africa before returning to Australia with his unit in 1942. In New Guinea he fought at Milne Bay where he was awarded a field commission. The 2/9th was part of the Australian/United States advance following the retreat of Japanese forces from Kokoda, on 12 January 1943 QX372 Lieutenant G.K. Jackson was killed in action at on the Killerton Track at Sanananda, inland from “Bloody “ Buna.

KEN'S LIFE 1914 - 1943 (BRIEF OVERVIEW):
Parents: George Lloyd Jackson & Eva Mary Jackson (nee Weatherell). Married in Brisbane QLD in 1910. They had 2 children: the eldest was Marjorie N. [?]; the youngest was George Kenneth ("Ken").
Note: The Jackson family home was to eventually be situated at 28 Westbourne Street, Highgate Hill, South Brisbane.
George Lloyd Jackson was cited as an accountant for the State Advances Corporation in an obituary to Ken found in the Queensland public service's, The State Service, 15 February 1943.
• Birth: 12 June 1914 [Vulture St., South Brisbane?], Queensland.
• Brisbane Schooling: Church of England Grammar School "Churchie" (now Anglican Church Grammar School), 1925-31; followed by private tutoring for a period thereafter.
• Member of the Queensland Naturalists' Club: A financial member from circa 1932 (when Ken turned 18) - 1943. (Note: was an active participant in Club activities as early as 1930-31, via the membership of both parents; possibly even as early as the late 1920s.)
• 2 Years Working in Western QLD: Thylungra Station (between Quilpie & Windorah), circa 1935 - 1936.
[Note: Ken is known to have written about his experiences while in Western Queensland and these were apparently published in journals or newspapers, but to date, these have not been located or identified.]''
• Queensland Museum staff: Ethnologist (initially appointed as a Cadet on probation), 15 October 1937 - 1943
• Royal Australian Navy Reserve (2 1/2 years service): circa [1937-38-39?]
• Member of the Royal Society of Queensland: 27 June 1938 - 1943
• Member of the National Parks Association of Queensland: 12 October 1938 - 1943
• Militia Service (Army No. 404206, 9149th Battalion): 11 July 1939 - 5 November 1939, Brisbane, Queensland
• Army (QK372 2/9th Infantry Battalion, 2nd A.I.F.): 6 November 1939 - killed in action, Sanananda, New Guinea, 12 January 1943. Initially buried Gona Area, 13 January 1943; then re-buried at the Soputa War Cemetery, 29 April 1943 (Plot F Row C Grave No.2); before final interment in the Commonwealth War Graves, Bomana War Cemetery, Port Moresby (Grave A7.B.3). [Lieutenant George Kenneth Jackson, 2/9 Inf. Bn., is also commemorated on the Roll of Honour at the Australian War Memorial. His name is found Panel 33 in the Commemorative Area at the Australian War Memorial.
A.I.F. career highlights: Intelligence Course at Victoria Barracks Brisbane, Nov.-Dec. 1939; & later served in North African Campaign 1940-42, Milne Bay (late 1942) and other locations during New Guinea Campaign 1942-43.
Promoted:
Acting Corporal, 6 June 1941 in North Africa (later confirmed Corporal, 12 October 1941, North Africa);
Lance Sergeant, 15 September 1942 (in Australia),
Acting Lieutenant, 5 October 1942 [in the field at Milne Bay]; & later confirmed as Lieutenant, after his death, 14 January 1943 (also as 6 April 1943), with officer's commission backdated to commence from 5 October 1942.
Awarded posthumous Mentioned in Despatches for "Gallant & distinguished services in South West Pacific Area." (Commonwealth of Australia Gazette, 23 December 1943)
• Married: Dorothy Ivar Jackson (nee Oldfield) in Brisbane on 28 April 1942. (Note: Dorothy's name is also found as "Dorothy Joan Jackson" in some Army and other contemporary sources. Dorothy herself, in an interview on 20 February 2008, confirmed her middle name as "Ivar", and that she was named after her father's friend who was killed in WW1.) Ken and Dorothy Jackson had no children.
Ken and Dorothy Jackson's residence was "Aysgarth", located at 13 Emily Street, Highgate Hill, South Brisbane.
This residence was the family home of Dorothy's Oldfield family. The house was named by Dorothy's father who was from Leeds. Aysgarth was a favourite place he liked to visit white hiking in the Yorkshire Dales, UK. (Aysgarth in Yorkshire, and is renowned for its triple flight of waterfalls along the River Ure, on its descent to mid-Wensleydale.) Dorothy also noted that this residence was only known by its name "Aysgarth", and not by its street number 13, and believed this was done by her father, so that her mother would not be superstitious about the actual street number to identify where they lived.
Note: Dorothy Jackson (now McNeil), lives at 640a Pacific Parade, Tugun Qld, 07 5534 3046, and has been visited and interviewed by Jeff Hopkins¬Weise on 20 February & 12 March 2008.
Ken Jackson's Known Published Articles, 1932 - 1945:
1) Ken Jackson, "Botany of Easter Excursion to Upper Cedar Creek", The Queensland Naturalist, Vol.B, No.3, (August 1932), pp.41-43.
2} G.K. Jackson, "Botany of Caloundra. Report on Easter Excursion", The Queensland Naturalist, Vol.8, No.6, (September 1933); pp.74-75.
3) G. K. Jackson, "The Keperra Bora Ring", The Queensland Naturalist, Vol. 10, No.5, (May 1938), pp.94-95.
4) G.K. Jackson, "Aboriginal Middens of Point Cartwright District", Memoirs of the Queensland Museum, Vol. 11, Part 3, (17 March 1939), pp. 289-295.
5) G.K. Jackson, "Ethnological Notes [Upper Albert River]", The Queensland Naturalist, Vol. 11, No.2, (June 1939), pp.43-45. ,
6) G.K. Jackson, "Comparison of Native Rock Shelters of Sydney and Moreton Bay", The Queensland Naturalist, Vol. 11, No. 5, (November 1940), pp. 92-94.
7) G.K. Jackson (on active service), "Notes on the Cretaceous Deep Sea Deposits of England and the Shallow Sea Deposits of the Libyan Desert", The Queensland Naturalist, Vol. 11, No.7 [sic 6], (August 1941), pp. 134-136.
8) G.K. Jackson, "Dug-out Canoe from Rokell River, Sierra Leone, West Africa", The Queensland Naturalist, George Kenneth Jackson Memorial Number, Vo1.12, No.5, (April 1945), pp.81-83 (& Plate II).

Excerpt from: ‘A Time for a Museum’ p. 212
G.K. Jackson was appointed as a cadet in October 1937. He was a naturalist with an interest in Aboriginal anthropology especially developed during two years he spent in southwest Queensland before joining the museum staff. He took over the day to day running of the anthropological collections, becoming responsible for registration of incoming material, working on displays and providing public information. He collected archaeological material from sites in southern Queensland and published a number of small papers in The Queensland Naturalist and the Memoirs. Ken Jackson joined the 2/9 Battalion AIF in October 1939 and served with it in the United Kingdom, North Africa, Syria and New Guinea. During his service he visited as many museums as possible and even made collections in Egypt, Syria and New Guinea. His absence from the museum had a particularly detrimental effect on the anthropology collections. Longman noted in a letter to Chaseling--the missionary from Yirrkala in Arnhem Land who had sold, at cost, significant collections to many Australian museums--'As Mr Jackson of our staff, who is in charge of this section, is abroad with the AIF, we shall not be able to do much until his return'. Lieutenant Jackson was killed in action in the `swamps of Sanananda' on 12 January 1943. In his will he left his private collection of 126 anthropological items from Australia and the Pacific to the museum. Unfortunately his service revolver, also donated, was stolen from the display gallery in a burglary in the 1970s. Due to war-time exigencies Jackson's position, for which he had been credited with yearly salary increments, was not filled' after his death. Longman referred to this in a letter to Colonel J.K. Murray, head of the Army School of Civil Affairs (later first administrator of the Territory of Papua and New Guinea) ‘As we have at present no specialist on our staff who is able to give full time to ethnology, I regret that I am unable to give more assistance’.