Remembering Roy Jackson

Name: Roy Jackson Rank: Sergeant Service: 2nd Field Hospital Company, 101st Infantry Division, Mass. National Guard, US Army (Mexican Punitive Expedition) 103rd Field Hospital Company, 101st Sanitary Train, 26th Division, US Army (WWI) Date of Birth: September 21, 1881 Place of Birth: Shelburne, Shelburne Co., Nova Scotia Date of Enlistment: June 1916 Place of Enlistment: Massachusetts Age at Enlistment: 34 Address at Enlistment: Massachusetts Marital Status: Married Next of Kin: Mrs. Gertrude Jackson (Wife) Occupation: Lumber Surveyor, Lumberman Date of Death: March 17, 1964 Age: 82 Cemetery: Long Island National Cemetery Grave: Section T, Site 7194 Jackson was the son of Thomas H Jackson (1851-1929) and Annie Jane McKay (1858-1910). His father was born in Chester, Lunenburg County, Nova Scotia. His mother was born in Clyde River, Shelburne Co., NS. Roy’s siblings were Mary Esther Jackson (1876–1939), John Edward Tracy Jackson (1878–1952), Isa T Jackson (1879–1931), Frank Jackson (1883–1964), Henry Jackson (1885–1964), Albert Lewis Jackson (1886–1939), Annie Jackson (1887–1975), Purcell Thomas Jackson (b.1891), Wallace Tracy Jackson (1891–1891), Jessie Silvina Jackson (1894–1987), and Sevilla Maud Jackson (1898–1948); and he had a half-brother, Arthur Edward Jackson (19132000). His sister Mary Esther Jackson lived in Yarmouth, NS, a resident there from the time of her marriage to John Jordan (1876–1958) in1921, until the time of her death in 1939. She is interred at the Mountain Cemetery there. Roy’s nephew, his brother Albert’s son, Arthur Thomas Jackson (1912–1944) was born in Shelburne and died in WWII on D-Day June 6, 1944. Roy’s grandnephew (Annie's grandson) PFC Alvin Richard ‘Ritchie’ Gale was killed in action January 28, 1969, in Vietnam, serving with the 26th Marines, United States Marine Corps Roy married Gertrude Mabel Stevens (b. 1889) on December 24, 1906, in Union, Strafford Co., New Hampshire, at the age of 25. At the age of 34 he enlisted in the Massachusetts National Guard. The Pancho Villa Expedition 1916-1917 His story is a unique one as he is the only known Nova Scotian to-date to have served in the Mexican Expedition (also known as the Pancho Villa Expedition, or Punitive Expedition, US Army) which took place from March 14, 1916 – February 7, 1917. The expedition was against the Mexican revolutionary leader and guerilla Francisco ‘Pancho’ Villa who threatened to bring the United States and Mexico into direct conflict with one another. It was launched in retaliation for Villa's attack on the town of Columbus, New Mexico. Roy served with Massachusetts National Guard (101st Infantry Division - 2nd Field Hospital), enlisting in June 1916 and serving in General Pershing’s Punitive Expedition. For the most part, troops from Massachusetts arrived in the border conflict theatre, at El Paso at the beginning of July 1916. Fort Bliss is a US Army post in New Mexico and Texas, with its headquarters in El Paso, Texas and was main US bastion at the border. Along with another 5767 National Guard troops, the No. 2 Field Hospital unit was designated by General Funston to return home from its border service on December 7, 1916 (Albuquerque Morning Journal of Dec. 8, 1916). First World War 1917- After returning to Massachusetts, Roy Jackson also served during the First World War from July 25, 1917 to April 29, 1919 in an Army medical unit, the 101st Sanitation Train, 103rd Field Hospital, of the 26th "Yankee" Division. He initially mustered in February 1917. The 103 Field Hospital Company sailed for Europe aboard the RMS Canada on September 16, 1917. The Company served in the Toul Sector, the Aisne-Marne Offensive, St. Mihiel, the Troyon Sector, and in the final push during the Meuse-Argonne Offensive. Roy survived WWI, settling in New York. In 1930, the family was living in Manhattan, as well as in 1942 (according to the census), and Roy died on March 17, 1964, in New York, New York. He was interred at the Long Island National Cemetery in Farmingdale in central Long Island, NY, managed by the US Department of Veterans Affairs.

Sources: Pancho Villa Expedition findagrave