Frederick Arthur Jackson

Frederick Arthur Jackson was an English Baptist minister, poet, devotional writer, and hymn writer born at Longford, Warwickshire, on January 28, 1867. He trained for ministry at Spurgeon's College and entered the Baptist ministry in 1888. Hymnological records place him at Old Basford, Nottingham, by 1901, while later denominational biographical material records pastoral service in several English communities, including Campden in Gloucestershire and, eventually, Little Brington near Northampton.

Jackson wrote both poetry and prose for Christian readers. His volume Just Beyond appeared in 1902, and contemporary Baptist commentary praised the literary quality of his verse and devotional writing. He also supplied hymns for children's, youth, congregational, and special-purpose collections. Works documented in hymnological sources include Father, Now We Thank Thee, Fight for the Right, Boys, Join We All in Gladsome Singing, There Is a Book That Comes to Me, Where the Flag of Britain Flies, Come Home, Sad Heart, Come Home, and the baptismal hymn Master, We Thy Footsteps Follow.

Several of those texts entered the Sunday School Hymnary of 1905 or the Christian Endeavour Hymnal of 1906, and later Baptist collections continued to preserve his work. His writing reflects the practical devotional concerns of early twentieth-century Free Church worship: prayer, discipleship, Christian education, family life, baptism, and moral formation.

Jackson died at Little Brington on December 4, 1942. His hymn-writing reputation is modest compared with major Victorian hymnists, but his surviving texts show a pastor-poet working within British Baptist worship, Sunday-school culture, and devotional publishing.