Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Youngest of three siblings (Donald, Dawn and Oliver) who served in the Australian Army, Brigadier Oliver David Jackson DSO, OBE (Service Nos:NX12242/VP16039/2111) commenced his training in March 1937 at the Royal Military College Duntroon, graduating in 1939. In July 1940 he was Platoon Commander with 2nd Battalion 25th Infantry Brigade and served in the Middle East (North Africa and Syria) and New Guinea. Promoted to Lieutenant Colonel in 1949 and Colonel in 1951, he served in various staff appointments and in 1956 assumed command of 1st Battalion RAR overseeing final operations in Korea.  Following a two year appointment in the USA as Military Attache in Washington, in 1961 he was appointed Director of Infantry at Army HQ. Colonel Jackson served in Vietnam (1963/1967) and was the only Officer to command all three original battalions of the Royal Australian Regiment. Promoted to Brigadier in 1966, he was appointed Commander of the 1st Australian Task Force (including the Battle of Long Tan). Returning to Australia in 1967, Brigadier Jackson - who had been awarded the Order of the British Empire in 1956 and the Distinguished Services Order in 1967 - was also awarded the United States Meritorius Unit Commendation and the Unit Citation of the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry in 1967. He commanded infantrymen in five theatres of war (Middle East, New Guinea, Japan, Korea and Vietnam) and was Chief of Staff at HQ 1st Division at retirement on 8 May 1974.

OD was born in London, England in 1919, youngest of three children of Robert Edward Jackson CMG, DSO, MiD (b1886 at Crows Nest on the Darling Downs, QLD) and Edith Margeurite Vautin (b1891 in Warracknabeal, Victoria). Robert was a Teacher in Perth in 1907 when he was commissioned into the Commonwealth Cadet Corps, and then in 1911 to the Australian Permanent Military Forces. Robert and Edith married in Perth in 1914, and Robert enlisted  for service in WWI as a Captain with 10th Light Horse Regiment on 20 November 1914. Their three children were born in England, and the family returned to Australia in 1924. Robert retired from the Army in 1942 - as District Officer commanding the 5th Military District - after service of almost four decades.

OD served in the Australian Army from 1939 to 1974. In 1944 in Sydney he married Dorothy Honor McLeish (b1920 in Sydney, New South Wales) - Dorothy served in the Army (Private; Service Nos:N105031/NX76417). Following retirement in 1974, OD and Dorothy settled in Sydney, where OD died in 2004 and Dorothy in 2007.