Jackson Frederick Georg 
(06.03.1860–13.03.1938)

Outstanding English traveler and explorer. 
Born in Warwickshire in the family parish priest. 
Jackson received his initial education at Denston College, after which he left for Australia to study sheep breeding at the age of 19. It was here that he made his first trip, having traveled 1,700 miles through the almost uninhabited and unexplored Australian desert. 
In 1881, Jackson returned to England and entered the medical department of the University of Edinburgh, from which he graduated in 1886.All subsequent life showed that his main vocation was traveling, discovering and exploring new lands, studying their nature. The character of Jackson combined curiosity and curiosity of the scientist, the talent of the organizer and the excitement of the athlete. These qualities, supported by received at the university medical and natural science training, allowed him to achieve outstanding success in the geographical field. The breadth of the natural and climatic range of the regions studied by Jackson is impressive: from the Arctic desert to the tropical jungle. 
Immediately after graduating from university, he traveled around Florida and other regions adjacent to the Gulf of Mexico for several months. Satisfaction of purely sporting interest was supported by natural historical observations. 
Returning to England, as early as the following 1887, Jackson achieved the post of surgeon in the well-known whaling fleet of Captain David Gray of Peterhead, with whom he first entered the Arctic. After 6 months, he returned with a huge collection that included an adult live polar bear. 
The second visit to the Arctic took place in 1893. Jackson explored Vaigach Island, and also in the winter time made a wonderful sledging trip of up to 2500 miles from the shores of the Kara Sea through the unexplored Bolshezemelskaya tundra to Pechora, from there to Arkhangelsk and then through Russian Lapland to Cape North Cape. This expedition of Jackson was the dress rehearsal before the implementation of the large-scale research he had planned for the Franz Josef Land archipelago, which had been opened 20 years before. 
The expedition to Franz Josef Land was organized with the money of the English newspaper magnate Alfred Harmsworth and was aimed at his comprehensive scientific research. By that time, the archipelago was virtually unexplored. After its discovery by the Austro-Hungarian expedition of J. Payer and K. Weyprecht, it was visited only twice, and then only in its south-western part. In 1879, the Dutch approached him on the ship “Willem Barents” under the command of A. De Bruyne, who discovered Hooker Island, but did not land on the ground. In 1880–1882 Scottish expedition of B. Lee-Smith worked on the archipelago. 
The Jackson Expedition, which lasted from 1894–1897, was one of the most brilliantly organized Arctic enterprises, thanks to which the participants did not experience the slightest hardships during the three winterings. Delivered on the vessel "Windward" the British organized a base at Cape Flora on Northbrook Island. Later, a camp was established in the north of this island at Cape Lagerny. Careful forethought and excellent preparedness of the expedition contributed to the fruitful research activities.

The group consisted of ten people, among whom were such highly qualified specialists as geophysicist A. Armitage, geologist R. Ketlitz, the botanist G. Fisher ^[1] , which allowed to conduct extensive geophysical, geological, hydrobiological and mineralogical studies, to collect diverse collections, to take a huge number of photos. The expedition gave excellent results in studying the geography of Franz Josef Land. She established that this is a large archipelago consisting of many large and small islands.The islands of Scott Kelty, Ketlits, Nansen, Luigi, Salisbury, Elizabeth, Jackson, Harley, Ommanney, Arthur, the Royal Society and others were discovered. A number of geographical objects of the archipelago are named after comrades Jackson and their families. The description of the archipelago made by the expedition was the most complete, and the constructed maps and maps were the most accurate for that period of time. Research Jackson was removed from the map of the non-existent Land of Gillis.

Left: Salisbury Island. Rocks impregnable Right: Royal Society Islands (photo by N. M. Stolbov)

^[1] In 1895, he named the cape in the north-west of Salisbury Island in the name of G. Fisher.

Jackson had a happy fate and a light hand. The base of his expedition, Cape Flora, was figuratively called the "International Arctic Hotel". In 1896, Jackson met and sheltered F. Nansen and F. Johansen, who were returning after an unsuccessful campaign to the pole. Do not be this meeting, it is not known what their fate would be. Jackson's “Are You Not Nansen” became as famous as “Dr. Livingston, I suppose”, said another eminent researcher in Africa. After 18 years Jackson actually saved V.I. Albanov and his companion A.E. Conrad, who stumbled upon the Gurias, folded by Jackson with a note explaining their whereabouts. In the years 1904-1905 in the house of Jackson, taking advantage of the food left by him, one of the groups of the expedition of W. Ziegler, A. Fiala, wintered. He saved not only them, but the entire expedition of Sedov, which used the fuel left by Jackson. Sedovtsy dismantled and the expedition house. In 1929, the Soviet expedition to the hydrographic vessel "G. Sedov” discovered his remains. 
Jackson intended at the first opportunity to continue the study of the archipelago and beyond. He planned to put his ship to the north of Coburg Island and make sled trails on dogs or ponies from there. However, this opportunity no longer presented itself. The results of his work on Franz Josef Land Jackson published in 1899 in a detailed, beautifully illustrated two-volume work "A Thousand Days in the Arctic", unfortunately, not translated into Russian. 
In 1898, for his arctic research, Jackson was elected an honorary member of the Geographical Societies of America and Italy, received first-class knighthood of the Royal Order of St. Olaf from the Swedish King Oscar, and in 1899 was awarded the gold medal of the Geographical Society in Paris. Oddly enough, but there is no information about the awards from the British Royal Geographical Society. 
In subsequent years, Jackson participated in the Anglo-Boer and World War I, was wounded, had many military decorations. 
In 1925–1926 in the seventh decade of his life, the indefatigable researcher made a whole series of remarkable journeys already in the African tropics. He crossed Africa in a northwesterly direction from Beira’s port in Mozambique to Banana’s port in the mouth of the Congo, explored Lake Tanganyika, passed through Rwanda, visited the Virunga volcanic mountains, climbed the Congo Nature Reserve, descended from the Lake Kivu sources to the mouth. Jackson visited the origins of three great African rivers: the Congo, the Nile and the Zambezi. The recognition of his authority was the election to the commission established by the League of Nations to study the living conditions of the African population. 
Jackson has completed his glorious, adventurous life in London. He is buried in the cemetery of St. Michael and St. Mary Magdalene at Easthampstead in Berkshire. There is a plaque on the wall of the church : "In memory of Frederick George Jackson, Major of the East Surrey Regiment, head of the polar expedition of Jackson-Harmsworth in   1894-1897. He discovered, mapped and called most of Franz Josef Land and rescued Dr. Nansen. He died on March 13, 1938 at the age of 78".  
An island in the north of Franz Josef Land. Opened and named in the spring of 1895 by members of the expedition of Jackson. 
An island in the Barents Sea near the island Vaigach. Named by Russian hydrographs in 1903. 
The ice dome on the island Hooker archipelago Franz-Josef Land.

In the archipelago of Franz Josef Land north of the island of George Land is Arthur's Island, named after Jackson in honor of his brother.