© 1957 - 2015 Arthur Jackson  | Terms of Use

Our younger son, Edward, was born in 1989. Ed was a healthy, happy, bright lad, incredibly good at sport, funny, loving and popular.

 

When he was about 15, Ed started to become angry and withdrawn, developing into mental illness. Tragically, Ed took his own life on New Year’s Eve, 2007.

 

Please click here to follow Ed’s story.

 

 

I was born in Winchester in 1957 and lived at 77 Andover Road for the first 17 years of my life.

I attended Weeke Infants School from 1962-63, Weeke Junior School from 1963 - 68, failed my 11-plus exam, attended Montgomery of Alamein Secondary Modern School from 1968-73 and Peter Symonds Sixth Form College from 1973-75.

I studied (!) Electrical and Electronic Engineering at the University of Bristol, gaining my Bsc (Hons) in 1978.

 

My second job was in Suffolk. Jayne and I moved to  the village of Henley in July 1984, we married a few months later, had two sons and lived there for fourteen years.

 

First house,

Chelmsford

Henley Community Centre

The home that we built in 1999

During my time in Henley, I was asked to join a committee that had been set up to replace the village’s ancient wooden WI hall with a purpose-built community centre. I ended up as chairman of the Community Centre Building Committee and became heavily involved with the management of the building work. The building was completed on budget (£400,000) and was opened to great acclaim in 1997.

 

My first job after graduating was near Chelmsford in Essex, where I worked for 5 years. During this time I lived in rented accommodation in Writtle, Great Totham, Felsted and Chelmsford, before purchasing a tiny house in Chelmsford in 1983 with financial assistance from my girlfriend Jayne.

 

Our house in Henley

Having caught the building bug, Jayne and I decided to build a new house about 10 miles away. Alan Farnish, a local builder who had had a major involvement with the community centre also built our house, completing it in 1999, and we have lived there since then.

Much loved and

so sadly missed