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JANUARY 18, 1921 - Mr Alexander
Jackson, CM
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In 1921, in Dublin, there died Rev.
Mr. Alexander Jackson. He was an Australian student
for the Congregation. After studies at Bathurst, he
went to Ireland in 1910, but through ill-health did
not complete his studies. He died after a long
illness. His name is the first Australian one to
appear in the Congregational necrology. ("Vincentian
Journal")
(More recent
information from Ireland [below] has
him in Ireland before 1911.)
Mr Jackson came to St Stanislaus'
College, Bathurst, at the age of twenty-one from
Melbourne where he was born. He was admitted to the
college as an aspirant to the Congregation. In 1907
he was sent to the Vincentian Novitiate at Blackrock,
Dublin, where he received his vows in 1909. |
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After four years of study he suffered a serious
breakdown in health and was sent to the south of
France for treatment. Owing to continued ill health
he had to relinquish all study. In site of the most
skilful and careful attention and various changes to
health resorts in Europe and Ireland he lingered on
till 1921 when he died in a hospital in Dublin. He
was buried in the community cemetery at Blackrock. He
is the first name of an Australian Vincentian to
appear in the suffrage lists of the Congregation.
(Taken from a Photo Album in Vincentian Archives,
Bathurst)
The following was
obtained from the
CM
archives, Ireland:
Date of birth: 6-12-1883. Father - not recorded.
Mother - Margaret Williamson, Cambridge St, Sydney.
Entered CM - 19-01-1909 Vows: 25-01-191 1, present
Thomas Morrissey, CM. Died: 18-01-1921 St Joseph's,
Blackrock. Buried St Joseph's, Blackrock, re-interred
Dean's Grange 2-9-1977. No record of any Orders. The
necrology in the 1922 Catalogue lists him as a
student/cleric.
Provincial Joseph Walshe to
Superior General, 6-11-1913, extract. (Original in
French)
"Mr Jackson, one of our students, five years vocation,
was born in Australia about 30 years ago of a Chinese
non Christian father and a Catholic mother; both are
dead. ... he wrote a few months ago to Mgr Reynaud to
offer himself for his vicariate (in China). Mgr then
wrote to me for information. I told him all the
circumstances of Mr Jackson, and there the matter
rests. I would be very pleased for Mr Jackson to go to
China 1) because I would like to do something for that
country, 2) Mr Jackson's being Chinese should be
useful there, although he has no knowledge whatsoever
of the language, 3) our climate does not suit him at
all. He has done two years of theology and is
talented enough. But I must tell you, Father, that in
Blackrock he is regarded as rather odd. At times he
seems nonchalant or somewhat lazy at his studies, and
in class. He also claims he must eat a lot, and he is
too reserved with his companions. ... I have suggested
to Mgr Reynaud that he (Mr Jackson) go to the Maison Mère
to finish his theology. There his vocation could be
tested and his "mentality", he would learn French
better, which is so useful in China, and the
French climate would suit him better than ours." |
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