Hilery Desmond Jackson: ornithologist and museologist

Abstract

Ostrich is co-published by NISC (Pty) Ltd and Informa UK Limited (trading as Taylor & Francis Group) Hilery Desmond Jackson, called Desmond and known as Des, was the only son of Clifford and Pat Jackson. He was born on 9 March 1935, in Balfour, Transvaal South Africa. He matriculated in 1951 with a distinction in mathematics. His early working career featured stints at the Department of Justice in Pretoria, then Coronation Collieries in Witbank where he was a Learner Official, doing mainly surveying. He spent 1954 doing the first year of a BSc (Mining Engineering) before returning to Coronation Collieries in 1955. He worked for the City of Johannesburg in 1956 as Technical Assistant doing surveying and drafting, mainly on road layouts, sewerage and water reticulations. He spent two years in Witbank in the same capacity. In 1959, Des joined the Grain Marketing Board of Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) in Salisbury (now Harare) as a planning officer, and remained there until 1969. As a young man, Des spent much time flying for recreation and bird watching. The latter eventually became his primary pursuit and led to his career in ornithology. He was hired by the National Museums of Rhodesia as Keeper of Zoology in Umtali in 1970 and, when the long serving Curator of Umtali Museum (Donald Broadley) opted to relinquish his administrative role and revert to Keeper of Herpetology in 1973, the reins were handed over to Des who remained in that post until 1978. (Keepers of a department and Curators of museums were subsequently re-designated as Curators and Directors respectively.) He spent until 1974 collecting, processing and doing research on zoological specimens and undertaking an avifaunal survey of the Umtali Municipal Area, in particular the nightjars. Field expeditions took him all over Rhodesia and Malawi, and to parts of Zambia, Mozambique and Kenya. Detailed fieldwork on nightjars was carried out 50 km south of Umtali for several months each year from 1972 to 1975. After 1974, he focussed on Museum administration and development. As was his approach to all tasks, Des accepted the challenge with relish and introduced many new concepts and ideas into the running of the museum and, especially, the manner in which it interacted with the local community. This was a novel idea and Des was ahead of his time in this respect. He maintained that he wanted to dispel the stereotypical image of a Museum Curator as a bespectacled man in a white dust coat with a yellow duster in hand! Des correctly understood that for a museum to be successful in a small community, the local population needed to share and participate in its activities. To this end he created the Umtali Museum Scientific and Cultural Association (UMSCA), which all the small and fragmented clubs and societies in the city were invited to join. Under UMSCA’s ‘umbrella’, the clubs that were not viable on their own, joined forces, had a permanent meeting place, and contributed to a monthly magazine produced and distributed by the museum. Clubs were encouraged to hold exhibitions at the museum, in particular the Manicaland Artists Society, and an annual event was held at which all members put on a display for the public. This concept gave the community a strong sense of ‘belonging’ to the museum and dispelled the myth of it being seen as an ivory tower institution. Des also recognised that to overcome the perception that the museum’s exhibits were static and unchanging thereby making repeated visits unnecessary, a programme of temporary exhibitions would provide regular stimulus to visit. This idea developed into a lasting relationship with the National Gallery in Harare whereby all their travelling art exhibitions visited Mutare (Umtali was renamed Mutare after independence in 1980), effectively turning Mutare Museum into an outreach arm of the Gallery. While Des was primarily a scientific researcher at heart, his administrative skills were recognised when the incumbent Executive Director of National Museums and Monuments (NMMZ) resigned in 1978 and Des was appointed to the post. This meant relocating from Mutare to Harare, which was a considerable sacrifice as Des and his wife Joy (née Stopforth) had made Mutare their home. However, Des embraced the new position with vigour. In 1978 he was also accepted by the University of Natal (Pietermaritzburg, South Africa) for a special MSc (Zoology) degree on the basis of his record of research and publication. He was awarded the degree in 1984. One of his first accomplishments as Executive Director was to negotiate the return of the soapstone Zimbabwe bird housed in the South African Museum in Cape Town to its rightful home in Zimbabwe. This was achieved by offering in exchange a collection of Hymenoptera type specimens from the Entomological Collection at the National Museum in Bulawayo. While this was principally a politically expedient Obituary