Within the collection are records and logs from Jackson's early career, essays on the use of radio, etc, as well as various official letters that illustrate Jackson's role in many of his appointments, up to the end of his career.

Administrative / biographical background
Sir Henry Bradwardine Jackson entered the Royal Navy through HMS BRITANNIA in 1868, and as a Lieutenant specialised first in navigation and later in torpedoes. Promoted to Commander in January 1890, he began experimenting with radio waves and eventually succeeded in transmitting signal between ships over a distance of several hundred yards. Soon after promotion to Captain in June 1896, Jackson met Marconi and discovered that they had both been working along similar lines. Following Jackson's success in this area of communication, the Royal Navy placed contracts with Marconi in 1900 to supply radios its ships, and in 1901 Jackson was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in recognition of his work. After serving as Captain of the torpedo school ship HMS VERNON in 1904, Jackson was promoted to Third Sead Lord and Controller in the new Board of Admiralty. He then commanded a cruiser squadron, represented the Admiralty at the 1911 International Conference on Aerial Navigation, and gained a position the newly created War College at Portsmouth, bfore he returned to the Admiralty in February 1913 as Chief of War Staff. On the Resignation of Lord Fisher in May 1915, Jackson took his place as First Sea Lord, but was himself superseded by Admiral Sir John Jellicoe in Decmber 1916, and appointed President of the Royal Naval College, Greenwich. In July 1919, he was promoted to Admiral of the Fleet and the following year, became Chairman of the Radio Research Board of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research.