Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Jackson, Julian
JACKSON, JULIAN (wrongly called John Richard) (1790–1853), colonel of the imperial Russian staff and geographer, son of William Turner Jackson and his wife Lucille, was born 30 March 1790, and baptised at St. Anne's Church, Westminster, 24 May following. He passed through the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, was nominated to a Bengal cadetship by Sir Stephen Lushington in 1807, and was appointed second lieutenant in the Bengal artillery 26 Sept. 1808, and first lieutenant 28 April 1809. He resigned his rank in India 28 Aug. 1813 to seek employment in Wellington's army in the Peninsula, but arrived too late. On 2 June 1815 the emperor Alexander of Russia appointed Julian ‘Villiamovitch’ Jackson to the quartermaster's staff of the imperial suite, with the rank of lieutenant. He did duty with the quartermaster-general's staff of the 12th Russian infantry division under Count Woronzow, forming part of the allied army of occupation in France, until 6 Nov. 1818, when he went to Russia with them in the rank of staff-captain. On the augmentation of the Lithuanian army corps next year Jackson was appointed to the quartermaster-general's staff, and attached to the grenadier brigade. He did duty with this part of the army during most of his service, becoming captain 8 Aug. 1821, and lieutenant-colonel 29 March 1825. He was promoted colonel on the general staff of the army 14 Aug. 1829, and retired from the Russian service 21 Sept. 1830 (information supplied by the imperial Russian staff). On Jackson's retirement the Count de la Canerine, imperial finance minister, appointed him commissioner and correspondent in London for the Russian department of manufactures. Early in 1841 he was appointed secretary of the Royal Geographical Society, London. He resigned the secretaryship in February 1847. About the same time he was suddenly superseded in his Russian post and emoluments, and was thus placed in very straitened circumstances. Through Sir Roderick Murchison he obtained a clerkship under the council of education, which he held until his death. The czar Nicholas also gave him a small pension (Journ. of the Roy. Geogr. Soc. 1853, presidential address). Jackson was made a F.R.S. London in 1845, and was a member or corresponding member of many learned societies. He was a knight of St. Stanislaus of Poland. He died, after long suffering, 16 March 1853 (Gent. Mag. new ser. xxxix. 562). He married Miss Sarah Ogle, by whom he had several children.
Jackson was an industrious writer. His ‘Guide du Voyageur,’ published at Paris in 1822, went through several French editions, and was reproduced in English under the title of ‘What to Observe; or the Traveller's Remembrancer,’ in 1841, 1851 (?), and 1861. Papers on ‘Couleurs dans les corps transparents,’ ‘Les Galets ou pierres roulées de Pologne,’ ‘Transparence et Couleur de l'Atmosphère,’ ‘Les lacs salées’ were contributed by him to the ‘Bibliothèque Univ. de Genève,’ 1830–2; and ‘Physico-Geographical Essays,’ ‘Hints on Geographical Arrangement,’ a translation of Wietz's memoir on ‘Ground Ice in Siberian Lakes,’ a memoir on ‘Picturesque Descriptions in Books of Travel,’ and other papers to the ‘Journal of the Royal Geographical Society.’ He also wrote a pamphlet on ‘National Education,’ which went through two editions; a work on ‘Minerals and their Uses’ (London, 1848); a memoir on ‘Cartography;’ and numerous reviews. He translated and edited from the French La Vallée's well-known treatise on ‘Military Geography,’ which in Jackson's hands became almost a new work. Jackson also indexed the first ten volumes of the ‘Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society,’ a task that occupied him 255 days, at the rate of five hours a day.