Ronald Alexander

27/10/1904

Ronald Alexander Jackson was born at Naracoorte in the south east of South Australia on 27 October 1904 to Robert German Jackson and Annie Christina (nee Beaton). It is known that he had a brother, Malcolm Robert Cyril and three sisters, Jean Audrey Annie, Isla Mamie, and Joyce Adelaide Jackson (Genealogy SA 2020). The family moved to Tarlee in the mid north of South Australia when Ronald and his siblings were still children where his father operated a garage and warehouse at various times (Criminal Sessions 1930: 23; Leane to Cheesman 1984).

Before winning a scholarship to St Peter’s College in Adelaide, Ron was educated locally at Riverton District High School, studying History, Latin, Algebra and Geometry (The University of Adelaide 1917: 7). While studying at St Peter’s College, Ron boarded with a Miss Hardy at Payneham (Hardy to Cheesman 1984). Ron’s schooldays’ friend, Geoff Leane recalled that “Ron and I lived a very drab sort of existence as teenagers. We either holidayed at Tarlee with his parents or at Noarlunga in a tent on the edge of the river. At Tarlee we taught ourselves to drive on an old model T ford belonging to his Father’s garage” (Leane to Cheesman 1984).

Leane recalled Ron as having “a passion for pole vaulting”, with his sporting prowess as a youngster rewarded when he placed second in the Junior Obstacle Race at school (Leane to Cheesman 1984; St Peters 1919: 8). In 1920 Ron was cox of the Schools Tub Four (Henley-on-Torrens 1920: 9). Ron continued to be a keen sportsman and enjoyed tennis, golf, croquet and bowls, and was a member of the Brighton Bowling Club (Leane to Cheesman 1984; Hardy to Cheesman 1984). Ron Jackson participated in the annual cricket match between the Architect-in-Chief’s Department and the officers of the Corporation of the City of Adelaide (General 1922: 5) as well as the match between the architects and builders (Builders and Architects at Play 1929: 7)

Fellow architect, Jack Cheesman, counted him as a close friend during their time studying architecture at the South Australian School of Mines and Industries between 1922 and 1929, during which time they also worked in the Architect-in-Chief’s Department of the South Australian Government (Cheesman 1984). Ron gained his position as a junior draftsman in January 1922, working his way to Architectural Draftsman by 1926 (GG 19 Jan 1922: 102; GG 21 January 1926: 95). Ron gained credits in Statics and Dynamics in 1925 (School of Mines 1925: 11). And in 1929 was awarded the Prize for Architectural Design at the School of Mines and Industries (School of Mines’ Record Year 1929: 34).

Following his studies, Jackson gained employment in the office of E.H. McMichael and Harris from 1928 until the Depression in 1929, when he worked part time as Inspector of Licensed Premises for the Police Department (Cheesman 1984; Government Gazette (GG) 7 July 1932: 6). He continued in this role until July 1936 when he returned to the Architect-in-Chief’s Department to work as a draftsman (Personal 1936: 16; GG 23 July 1936: 110). In 1948 Ronald Jackson was listed as a Registered Architect under the Architects’ Act of 1939 (GG 5 February 1948: 324). He became an Associate member of the South Australian Institute of Architects on the 5 September 1930 (SAIA Roll Book).

Ron married Verna Christena Fletcher (1904-1981), daughter of farmer, Archibald Fletcher of Port Broughton, on 28 January 1933 at Port Broughton Methodist Church (Marriages 1933: 64). They lived at Brighton and had a daughter Anne Christine in 1935, who would later marry James Hardy in 1956 (Recuperation Ball 1954: 32). The family lived at various addresses in Brighton including at 15 Edwards Street and 8 Marlborough Street, before, in the late 1940s, moving to 47 Acacia Street, Seacliff. However, by the 1960s they moved back to Brighton to live at 48 Cedar Avenue (Sands and McDougall Directories).

By 1937 Jackson had been made Assistant Construction Officer in the Architect-in-Chief’s Department (GG 2 September 1937: 562), and by 1962 was Supervising Design Architect of the Public Buildings Department (GG 20 December 1962: 1769). Cheesman writes that “during the latter years [he] was the Supervising Architect of the Schools Branch” (Cheesman 1984). By the beginning of 1972 Ron Jackson had retired from architecture (GG 17 February 1972: 592). He died on 22 July 1979.

It was in his role as architect working in the Architect-in-Chief’s Department of the South Australian Government that Jackson made his main contribution to South Australian Architecture. While it is difficult to attribute government works directly to individual architects, Jack Cheesman has recorded that Jackson “designed and completed working drawings for the Kiosk at the Royal Adelaide Hospital” (Cheesman 1984).

The Sheridan Kiosk at the Adelaide Hospital on North Terrace, Adelaide was designed as a partly-open refreshment pavilion for both visitors and the convalescent to use and was operated by the volunteers of the Women’s Auxiliary of the Adelaide Hospital for fundraising purposes. It was opened on 18 November 1925 and dedicated to the memory of hospital benefactors, sisters Alice Frances Keith Sheridan and Violet Laura Simpson. The building was praised on its opening as “conveniently contrived and well lighted and ventilated within” (Sheridan Kiosk 1925: 10). The brick building featured a small octagonal plan with the front four faces open to the air and enclosed by verandah. A tea room area was located inside with a shop and a kitchen at the rear. The exterior was white cement and freestone in finish with a colour scheme was of blue and white and terrazzo flooring inside (Hospital Kiosk 1925: 3). Its distinctive metal domed roof gives it the appearance of a tempietto or small temple (South Australian Heritage Council 2014) and it is now on the South Australian State Heritage Register.

Ron Jackson was one of many architects who worked for the South Australian government and contributed, both through their design work and supervision of projects, to the fabric of the State.

Julie Collins

Citation details
Collins, Julie, ‘Jackson, Ronald Alexander’, Architecture Museum, University of South Australia, 2020, Architects of South Australia: [http://www.architectsdatabase.unisa.edu.au/arch_full.asp?Arch_ID=162]