Arthur Thomas Jackson was the son of Albert Lewis and Christina Mae (Buchanan) Jackson of Shelburne NS. He was one of nine children. He had seven brothers all who served in the Canadian Army and a sister, Ada. Arthur married Mary “Ellen” Crowell in 1936 and they had a daughter, Sandra Diane, and a son, Albert Eugene.
Before the war, Arthur worked as a carpenter at the W C McKay Shipyard in Shelburne and trained with the militia before he enlisted in the Royal Canadian Engineers in Bridgewater on 6 July 1941. After his initial training, he was posted to the 7th Construction Company and on 12 March 1942 he was a sapper undergoing training at Petawawa ON.
On his arrival in the UK in late 1942, Arthur was initially posted to the 6thField Park Company and was transferred to 6th Field Company on 17 December 1944. When he joined the Company on the Isle of Wight they were well advanced into training for their planned part in the assault on the Continent. He was assigned to 2 Platoon – that was to be the assault platoon in the first wave on D-Day. His six-man engineer team was in support of 10 Platoon of B Company of The Royal Winnipeg Rifles. He was mortally wounded by German machine gun fire during the beach landing and died a short time later. He was the first official Canadian casualty of the assault and is buried at Beny-Sur-Mer Canadian War Cemetery in France.
..... Based on Research conducted by the 6th Field Engineer Squadron Museum Association.