Robert Montresor Jackson
Sir Robert Montresor Jackson (1876-1940)
1941 Obituary [1]
Sir ROBERT MONTRESOR JACKSON, Bart., was well known to a wide circle of members of the Institution, where he was a familiar figure for many years. He was the son of the fourth baronet of Arlsey, whom he succeeded in 1916. Sir Robert was born in Hamilton, Canada, in 1876, and was educated at Tonbridge School and the Glasgow and West of Scotland Technical College. He served his apprenticeship with the North British Locomotive Company in Glasgow from 1893 to 1898, being employed as draughtsman during the last two years.
His first appointment was that of acting locomotive superintendent for the Donna Thereza Christina Railway in Brazil, where he remained from 1898 until 1900. He then went in a similar capacity to the Argentine Great Western Railway, and in 1902 to the Buenos-Aires and Rosario Railway. From 1904 to 1908, he was superintendent of locomotives, carriages, and wagons for the Argentine North Eastern Railway at Monte Caseros; and during 1909 and 1910, he was chief mechanical expert with Messrs. F. H. Bagge and Company, who were agents in Buenos Aires for the firms of Niles Bement Pond, and Pratt and Whitney, of the U.S.A.; for Messrs. Kitson and Company, of Leeds; and for Messrs. J. and G. Rennie, shipbuilders, of Greenwich.
In 1911 he reported on the Benguella Railway Company in Portuguese West Africa, for Sir Douglas Fox and Partners, and in the following year he was chief of the commission appointed by the Argentine Government to undertake the valuation of all the State railways in the Republic. He was appointed lubrication expert to the Galena Signal Oil Company, of Franklin, Pennsylvania, at their branch in Buenos Aires, and held this position from 1913 to 1916. He then entered the Royal Arsenal, Woolwich, and later was appointed assistant inspector of guns for the Glasgow area. In 1919 he went to Rio de Janeiro, where he represented Messrs. Babcock and Wilcox for the sale of power plant in Brazil, remaining there until 1923. Although he had retired some fifteen years previously, Sir Robert offered his services at the outbreak of war in 1939, and was appointed an inspector in Woolwich Arsenal.
Shortly before his death, which occurred on 4th December 1940, he had returned to Glasgow in the capacity of inspector of armaments. He was elected an Associate Member of the Institution in 1905 and was transferred to Membership in 1917.