Mike Jackson, who was second-in-command of the British army’s Parachute Regiment on Bloody Sunday in Derry in 1972, has died at the age of 80.
Gen Jackson was the adjutant, with the rank of captain, of the 1st Battalion Parachute Regiment on January 30th, 1972 when British soldiers opened fire in the city killing 13 unarmed civilians. He compiled a “shot list” that evening which suggested that those who had been shot were either nail bombers, bombers or gunmen.
The list was revealed in 2003 at the Saville Tribunal investigating Bloody Sunday. The tribunal found that none of the civilians shot that day were armed.
Gen Jackson told the tribunal he “emphatically” rejected a suggestion that he had sought to sanitise the events of Bloody Sunday. He suggested “with complete certainty” he was not involved “in any attempt to distort or cover up what had happened that day” and had not personally seen anybody being shot despite being based in Rossville Street at the time.
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However, he issued a “fulsome apology” following the publication of the Saville Report in 2010.
Gen Jackson was a captain in the Parachute Regiment during the Ballymurphy massacres of August 1971 in which 11 civilians, including a priest and a mother-of-eight, were shot dead by British soldiers.
At the inquest into the shooting in 2019, Gen Jackson was challenged as to why no serious investigation was carried out into the killings, which occurred over a 36 -hour period.
He suggested the Parachute Regiment was engaged in fire fights with the IRA that week in Ballymurphy. “I have absolutely no doubt that the IRA were firing on soldiers and soldiers were firing on the IRA,” he said.
The inquest concluded that all those who had been killed at Ballymurphy were innocent civilians.
The British army wrote on X: “It is with great sadness that we have learnt of the death of General Sir Mike Jackson GCB, CBE, DSO, on 15 October surrounded by his family.
“General ‘Jacko’ served with distinction for over 40 years, finishing his career as Chief of the General Staff.
“He will be greatly missed, and long remembered. Utrinque Paratus.”
SDLP Foyle MP Column Eastwood said it must be “very difficult for Bloody Sunday families to read the glowing obituaries of General Mike Jackson without any reference to the fact that he attempted to cover up the murder of their loved ones by his soldiers”.
Bloody Sunday Trust chairman Tony Doherty said Jackson had “knowingly ordered the execution of many innocent people” and “should have been in the international dock for war crimes”.
“Mike Jackson’s name will sit well in the annals of imperial injustice alongside [Lord John] Widgery, [Margaret] Thatcher and [Winston] Churchill. There will be no mourning here,” he said.
Born into a forces family, Gen Jackson was commissioned into the army as an officer from Sandhurst in 1963. He was appointed chief of the general staff a month before the controversial Iraq invasion in 2003 and was in the role until 2006.
He was succeeded by Gen Sir Richard Dannatt and retired from the army after serving for almost 45 years.
He was rewarded with a DSO (companion of the Distinguished Service Order) for his “highly successful command and leadership during active operations” in Kosovo, and a fourth star to become commander-in-chief, United Kingdom Land Command.
The Parachute Regimental Association said he was a “great leader of men” who will be “missed by many”.
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