Written by Peter's son, Mike.

Peter Francis Jackson 1937-2024, BGS 1945-54

Peter was born in Weston-super-Mare, the eldest of three children, and spent his first few years at the family home in Uphill. His parents moved to Coombe Dingle in 1945, and later Stoke Bishop and Portbury, to enable him and his brother to attend Bristol Grammar Preparatory and Senior Schools, which he thoroughly enjoyed. While there he developed a love of books and his volunteering in the library led him upon leaving BGS to start work for Bristol Public Libraries and then enjoy a successful career in libraries in Swindon, Manchester and Oxford.

He was delighted to find himself in CCF uniform on the far right of the photo on p.43 in ‘Pride of Place: A Modern History of Bristol Grammar School’ and the same photo appeared later on the School’s YouTube channel. He was also pleased three decades later to renew acquaintance with his form master in the photo, Michael Booker, whose daughter studied in Oxford.

Peter’s memories of BGS included being allowed with his class to watch Winston Churchill, who as Chancellor of the University was driven along University Road and acknowledged the boys. He also recalled a talk by the archaeologist Sir Max Mallowan, at the end of which the headmaster announced that the speaker’s wife, better known as Agatha Christie, was sitting at the back of the hall – apparently she received more applause than her husband!

Peter also participated in an exchange trip to Caen in the early 1950s at a time when few pupils had the opportunity to travel abroad. This was organised by Andre Heintz, who had been a visiting pupil at BGS in 1935, as well as a visiting teacher in the 1950s, and whose bravery as a French Resistance hero is recorded online elsewhere. Many years later Peter met up again with M. Heintz in France and also accompanied him to an Old Bristolians dinner at the School. He also attended OB reunions in Oxford, often with his brother-in-law John Riley.

In 1956 Peter was called up by the RAF for National Service, which he spent in Germany. This encouraged his lifelong interest in the country, which continued with a six-month work exchange trip to Hanover in 1961, when he also visited East and West Berlin just after the Berlin Wall had gone up.

Peter started his lifelong interest in cricket when the School was given a half-day’s holiday in 1949 to watch its famous old boy Tom Graveney play for Gloucestershire against the New Zealand touring side at Nevil Road. Ten years later he started his own team in his home village of Portbury, as well as helping to run a boys’ club there for members of the church choir. He became a member of Gloucestershire and Somerset and later Marylebone Cricket Club, which enabled him to watch England in Australia, including a rare Ashes triumph in 2010-11, and also England’s dramatic victory in the 2019 World Cup Final at Lord’s.

After taking early retirement from his role as Head Librarian at Oxford Polytechnic in 1992, Peter worked as a consultant for Oxford University Library Services and also as a volunteer guide in the Bodleian Library. He also wrote several books about his National Service experiences, which were warmly received.

In 2022 Peter and his wife Christine visited the School when staying in Bristol and a member of staff kindly showed them round the Great Hall, which brought back happy memories of his schooldays seventy years earlier.

Above all, Peter was a caring and committed family man, happily married for more than sixty years to Christine, who survives him with their three children and grandchildren, all of whom remember a true gentleman with warmth and affection.