Known for his grizzled features, no-nonsense manner and gravelly voice,
General Sir Mike Jackson, who has died aged 80 of prostate cancer,
became not only the most recognisable British soldier since Field
Marshal Montgomery, but could have been drawn from central casting.
Tall, cadaverous and with a craggy face – even the bags under his eyes
had bags, it was said, at least until he had them lifted, not for vanity
but to improve his eyesight – he looked like the sort of man who could
face down enemies whether in Kosovo or Iraq, as indeed he did.
Jackson, always known as Mike, or Jacko, to his troops, served during a
40-year career in just about every conflict that the British army has
been engaged in since the 1960s: Northern Ireland, the Balkans, Iraq and
Afghanistan; with the exception of the Falklands war, in which he served
behind a desk back in Whitehall.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/oct/16/general-sir-mike-jackson-obituary
He was on the scene of Bloody Sunday as a relatively junior officer of
the Parachute Regiment in Derry in January 1972, when troops of the
regiment killed 13 unarmed civilians on a civil rights protest march.
And 25 years later, as a Nato commander, he refused his US superior’s
command to block a runway in Pristina to prevent Russian forces landing,
telling him bluntly: “Sir, I’m not going to start World War Three for
you.”
However, Jackson was more sensitive than his image conveyed, with a
marked intelligence and diplomatic subtlety, though that did not prevent
him from speaking his mind robustly, especially after his retirement.
Born in Sheffield a few weeks before D-day, he was the son of Ivy (nee
Bower), who worked at the city’s museum, and George, a former Household
Cavalry trooper with a commission in the Royal Army Service Corps. From
the age of eight, he was a boarder at Stamford school, Lincolnshire,
where he served in the cadet force and failed to shine academically
except for languages, including Russian.
Instead of university, he went to the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst,
then offering a two-year officer training course, and on being
commissioned chose in 1963 to join the Intelligence Corps, where he
might use his languages. He subsequently took a Russian studies degree
at Birmingham University.
As part of his induction into the corps Jackson was required to serve
for a year with an infantry battalion, choosing the Parachute Regiment
and transferring to the unit in 1970 as it offered better officer career
prospects. Within two years he became adjutant of the 1st brigade, and
it was as a captain in Derry, seconded to the brigade commander Derek
Wilford and acting part time as a press officer, that he witnessed the
shootings of the demonstrators.
Jackson was convinced that the troops had been fired on first, but
admitted in his memoirs that the situation had been confused: “I hated
the thought that our soldiers might have lost control … I found it
difficult to accept that there could have been any mass breach of
discipline.” When the Saville report into the killings was published in
2010 he made an apology.
After attending the Army staff college, Jackson served as an infantry
brigade major in Berlin (1977-78). Back in Northern Ireland in 1979
during the Troubles, he was a company commander and soon on the scene of
the killing of 18 soldiers at Warrenpoint, County Down. He was seconded
to the staff of the college (1981-83), and appointed as a military
assistant in intelligence at the Ministry of Defence during the
Falklands war (1982).
In 1984 he took command of the first battalion of the Parachute
Regiment, which went to Norway for winter warfare exercises with Nato.
Following time at the Higher Command staff course and six months as a
defence fellow at Wolfson College, Cambridge (1989), he returned once
more to Northern Ireland as commander of an infantry brigade in Belfast
(1990-92) as talks were getting under way and the army’s role was to
serve as back-up to the civilian police.
Posting to Nato as a major general followed, coinciding with the Balkans
conflict (1995-96). He was in charge of the Implementation Force, IFOR,
overseeing the ceasefire and the beginnings of reconstruction and facing
down the leaderships on both sides, including the Serb commander Ratko
Mladić, “a brutal, boastful and manipulative thug”, who was somewhat
cowed by Jackson’s strategy of moving armoured vehicles constantly
outside their meeting to demonstrate the potential fire power at his
disposal.
His success in this role led to his appointment as commander of Nato’s
rapid reaction force in Kosovo, as Serb and Kosovan forces faced off in
1999. It led to his famous clash with the US general Wesley Clark, his
superior as Supreme Allied Commander Europe.
That happened as the Russian president Boris Yeltsin promised Russian
troops to help keep the peace, which was suspected as an attempt to aid
the Serbs and muscle in on Nato’s effort. With Russian troops making
towards Pristina, the Kosovan capital, Clark ordered Jackson to block
the airport runway. The move would have led to a direct confrontation
and Jackson refused.
He told him: “Sir, I am a three- star general, you can’t give me orders
like this. I have my own judgment of the situation and I believe this
order is outside our mandate.” The British government backed him, and
Clark conceded.
After the Russians arrived Jackson secured amicable relations with their
commander Viktor Zavarzin, partly through his ability to speak Russian
and largely through shared quantities of whisky and vodka.
His diplomatic success hinged on his even-handedness towards both Serbs
and Kosovans, defusing tensions, providing security for both sides and
starting the rebuilding process. The Balkans conflict brought him
recognition in Britain as a capable soldier, direct and engaging, even
archetypical as a military man, in interviews and broadcasts. He had the
support of his men, too, who jokily declared themselves followers of the
Prince of Darkness until their T-shirts were deemed inappropriate.
He returned to Britain as commander-in-chief, land forces, and then in
2003 chief of the general staff during the Iraq invasion, highly
critical of the lack of planning for the aftermath of the fall of Saddam
Hussein and tough on discipline, for officers as well as the troops they
commanded.
His more lasting influence however lay in the reorganisation of the
army’s infantry battalions, partly to save money, but also to account
for the military’s changing role. Historic regiments were merged, larger
units were created and bases were reordered to reduce operational
inefficiencies.
Jackson retired in 2006, laden with honours: an MBE in 1979, CBE 1992,
DSO in 1999, knighthood 1998 and knight grand cross, the highest
military honour, in 2005. He published his autobiography, Soldier, in
2007 and continued to make regular appearances in interviews and
documentaries.
He was married twice, first to Jennifer Savery, with whom he had two
children, Amanda and Mark. After their divorce, in 1985, he married
Sarah Coombe, with whom he had a son, Tom. She and his children survive
him.
Mike (Michael David) Jackson, military commander, born 21 March 1944;
died 15 October 2024