Papers of Willis Jackson Baron Jackson of Burnley (1904 - 1970)

Lord Jackson began the collection, which he called his 'scrapbooks', in 1952 as a pastime on an Atlantic sea-crossing; originally intended as a private record of social engagements, the project developed into materials for a relatively complete autobiography. Lord Jackson continued the work until his death, and also compiled a retrospective account of his life from schooldays onward (see especially nos. 1-5). There is a gap between 1947 (no.5) and 1952 (no.6), and between 1952 and 1955 (no.7).

Most of the documents are pasted or stapled to the pages of the books; where substantial sections of material were unattached, or where pages had been damaged or come loose, they have been re-filed and numbered as supplements to the related book, e.g., 3a. The order of the pages in the books has been preserved, but the pages are not numbered.

Lord Jackson made many annotations or 'chapter-headings' to sections of the books; these are indicated in inverted commas in the descriptions. Otherwise, a summary of contents is given.

Listed by Jeannine Alton and Harriot Weiskittel

The papers are held in a series of loose-leaf ring binders, numbered 1-91; the numbers in the handlist and index refer to these books.

<p>A substantial amount of loose papers, which Lord Jackson was presumably intending to re-allocate among the books, was transferred, on his death, from his office at The imperial College to the College Archives, and has been listed by Mrs. Jeanne Pingree (A List of the papers of Lord Jackson of Burnley, 1973). The two collections are therefore complementary, Lady Jackson's 'scrapbooks' dealing more fully with the early part of Lord Jackson's life, and the Imperial College collection with his later activities.</p>

The papers remain the personal property of Lady Jackson, and may be made available to bona fide researchers by arrangement via the Archivist, Imperial College, London.

A full account of Lord Jackson's career is given in the Memoir by D. Gabor and J. Brown, Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society, 17, 1971, pps.379-398.