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Recently, a book was produced called 'Warwickshire Ripples' :
this listed many Warwickshire men and women whose fame extended beyond the county
boundaries; in some cases, people of national importance. The book noted George Elliott,
Marie Corelli, Joseph Arch among the others.
One does not expect one's own small area to have produced people whose ripples reached out
well beyond their origins. But the Lower Arrow Valley has had its share of eminent people'
and some of these we will discuss each quarter.
In this issue we take two men whose home was in Alcester :- F.G. Jackson and Dr. Joseph
Brandish.
Dr. Joseph Brandish came of a medical father
and at Joseph's death the people of the town had been under the care of the same family
for nearly a century. However, his fame was wide-spread: he was said to cure the
"King's evil" (Scrofula) and folk came from a long way for his ministrations: he
became a surgeon to the Royal family in the first decade of the 19th century.
Frederick George Jackson was born in
Alcester, probably at Alcester Heath Lodge. In the early 1890s he went with six companions
to live for three years in the Arctic Franz Joseph Land to map a country only discovered
in 1873. Jackson showed that Franz Joseph Land was not a total land mass but consisted of
islands joined by frozen sea. In l896 a man was seen on the ice: this was Nansen, famous
Arctic explorer, who, with a companion, had retreated 500 miles after failing to reach the
Pole and were about to attempt 200 miles in Kayaks in open Arctic seas. This unexpected
meeting with Jackson probably saved Nansen's life and when eventually he published his
book 'Farthest North' he named Jackson's base 'Frederick Jackson Island'. Jackson had
himself named a northern island 'Mary Elizabeth Island' after his mother who was a
daughter of Alcester's rector, Alfred Frederick Crow. After Jackson's death in 1938,
following further explorations in Africa, a plaque was set in a communion rail in St.
Nicholas' church, Alcester, detailing his exploits.
In 1926, Russia annexed Franz Joseph Land and many names were changed: however, 'Ostrov
Dzheksona' (Jackson Island) has retained its name. Frederick George Jackson was one of
that long line of British adventurers who adorned our country in the 19th and 20th
centuries: Alcester should be proud of him.