Harry Jackson MBE, Vice President
Harry Jackson, who came to Humbleton from Burton Agnes, is known colloquially as “Mr Humbleton Cricket” for he has been involved there since for 1946. He has an amazing record of sixty-seven years service during which time he has been player, umpire, Secretary, Treasurer, Fixture Secretary and Groundsman at Humbleton.
He began playing cricket at the age of 15 when Humbleton C C was formed in 1946 and played until the late 1950s but then turned to umpiring in the East Riding Amateur League and then in the Pennant Alliance when Humbleton joined in 199. Many people will remember that Harry used to use a green shooting stick to rest on when at square leg. When at the bowler’s end Harry would put the stick behind him. He recalls one amusing incident at Londesborough Park when a well known bowler, having been denied what he believed to be a certain wicket, muttered “Thoo stick’s wrong colour today!”
He has received several awards through his involvement in cricket: a Service to Sport Award from the East Riding County Council in 1999, an Outstanding Service to Cricket Award from the YCB in 2010 from which he was also invited to Lord’s for an award ceremony on the nomination of the YCB. His highest honour, however, was the MBE presented to him by Her Majesty the Queen in 2003 for his services to the community which, of course, includes sport and his work at Humbleton.
Outside of cricket Harry has farmed for most of his life and was a great competitor in ploughing competitions from the age of 14 until 2011 finishing third in the “All England Finals” held at the Lincolnshire Showground in 2000. He also received an award in 1984 from the Lord Lieutenant for outstanding voluntary service to the Royal Observer Corps. Harry served in the ROC for thirty two years from 1960 when the threat of the ‘cold war’ was looming and was one of those who would have been able to warn the public of the threat of a nuclear attack.
For all this success Harry says, with characteristic modesty, he “owes a lot of gratitude to my wife Kathleen who has helped me along the way.”