Pelham Steane JACKSON

Pelham Jackson was born on 26 November 1889 in Hawthorn, Victoria. His parents were John and Elizabeth Lockey (née Steane) Jackson. He attended Scotch from 1902 to 1904. He was in Cadets.

Pelham had been a storekeeper and a bookkeeper before he enlisted on 16 January 1915 at Winton, Queensland. He served in the 2nd Light Horse Regiment and 11th Light Horse Regiment with the rank of Trooper. His Regimental Number was 164.

Pelham died on 19 April 1917 at Gaza, Palestine. He was 27 years of age.

Service record

Pelham was allotted to the newly formed 11th Light Horse Regiment soon after enlistment. He sailed from Brisbane for the Middle East on 2 June 1915. Pelham left Alexandria for Gallipoli on 25 August 1915 and on arriving, transferred to the 2nd Light Horse Regiment on 29 August. He stayed with that unit until the end of the campaign. The Scotch Collegian reported in late 1915 that in a letter from the Gallipoli trenches he had written that he had come across ‘a good many old Scotch boys’ in various units. In February 1916, in Egypt, he transferred back to the 11th LH Regiment, where he was made a Lance Corporal. However, in March he reverted to Trooper.

On 7 August 1916 he was wounded in action, at El Ferdan, but remained on duty. On 19 April he was wounded again, this time with shellfire. His injury was officially described as ‘gunshot wound to the thigh and fractures.’ He was transferred to the 3rd Light Horse Field Ambulance and then the 6th Mounted Brigade Field Ambulance, where he died that day.

His Red Cross Wounded and Missing file contains several eyewitness accounts of his last hours. Robert Jones said he saw ‘Jackson get caught by a shell through the thigh and arm.’ The account continued that Jackson ‘was so badly injured it was rather hard to recognise him’ but Jones knew it was him. Jones and another soldier, Leslie Mackrell, carried Jackson about a mile towards a dressing station, where they put him on a limber (gun carriage), on which he was taken to a clearing station. Mackrell said ‘Myself with two other men carried our unfortunate comrade who was seriously wounded’. He said they put Jackson on a cart and that Mackrell took him back two miles to a dressing station. Another eyewitness remembered someone using a rifle as a splint on Jackson’s shattered leg. All eyewitnesses agree that Jackson died later that day, probably at night. His body was buried, but its location was lost (see 1918 and 1927 letters to his widowed mother below).

Pelham Jackson has no known grave, but is commemorated at the Jerusalem Memorial, Israel.

Photographs and Documents:

1918 message to Pelham Jackson’s mother about his death and burial

Sources:

1. Australian War Memorial – Roll of Honour and Red Cross Wounded and Missing file
2. Mishura Scotch Database
3. National Archives of Australia – B2455, JACKSON PELHAM STEANE
4. Scotch Collegian 1917
5. The AIF Project - https://www.aif.adfa.edu.au/showPerson?pid=150962