Pilot Officer/Air Gunner James Jackson

Pilot James Alexander Jackson, Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve. He was killed in action on an Air Operation, aged 39, on the16th February 1944. He had been born in Kirkpatrick, Dumfriesshire and was the son of the late James and Agnes Jackson of Hassendean, Hawick and the husband of Molly Jackson whom he had married in Yetholm in 1937. He had been farming at Easter Wooden, Eckford when he enlisted and was commissioned from Aircraftsman 1st Class to Pilot Officer in the R.A.F. Regiment in September 1942. He was transferred to General Duties in August 1943. He was a member of 199 Squadron which flew the Short Stirling from R.A.F Lakenheath. at that time the squadron flew missions for the Special Operations Executive and he was lost when his aircraft crashed delivering supplies to a French Resistance Unit in South West France. The aircraft crashed near Verght in the Dordogne and all the crew were lost. He and his comrades are buried in Mazargues War Cemetery, Marseilles, France.