VICTORIA CROSS NORMAN JACKSON
When the Victoria Cross was awarded to a member of the RAF, the recipient was usually a pilot. Flight engineer Norman Jackson bucked the trend, as Graham Pitchfork explains
Born in the London borough of Ealing in April 1919, Norman Jackson was working as an engineer when World War Two began. Since he was in a ‘reserved occupation’, he was exempted from military service, but regardless he chose to join the RAF and trained as an engine fitter. Jackson was posted overseas and spent 18 months serving on 95 Squadron, which flew Sunderland flying boats from Freetown, Sierra Leone.
