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Jackson was born in Garlenick, Cornwall, in 1887 but grew up in Musselburgh. Having begun modelling in sculpture at Loretto School, in 1905 he became a Design, and later a Sculpture Student at the Edinburgh School of Art [formerly The Trustees Academy] at the Mound, Edinburgh - moving, when the Edinburgh College of Art opened to Lauriston Place. In 1910 he went as a scholar to the British School at Rome. After this his professional career began, and he had works accepted by the RA, and the RSA. At the outbreak of the First World War he was commissioned to the Ayrshire Artillery Brigade, serving in Palestine as a Staff Officer under Allenby. Following demobilization he became one of the group of sculptors whom Sir Robert Lorimer recruited for the Scottish National War Memorial. This collaboration lasted until Sir Robert's death in 1929 - the last commission being the Livingstone Memorial at Blantyre, Lanarkshire. In the 1920s he paid two visits to Stockholm where he came under the powerful influence of Carl Millles. During the 1930s he made a large number of statuettes for the United Services Museum at Edinburgh Castle, representing Scottish historical military types. But the greatest opportunity of his life was his heroic equestrian bronze statue, "The Bruce", for the Battlefield of Bannockburn. For many years a member of the Royal Fine Art Commission for Scotland, in 1942 he became President of the Society of Scottish Artists. As a Fellow of the Royal Society of British Sculptors, he acted for many years as its Scottish correspondent, and drafted the invaluable Form of Contract for Sculptors and their clients. Jackson was elected ARSA in 1956.