Thomas Henry "Tom" Jackson (March 1870 – 2 December 1952) was a Welsh

Wales

Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...

 rugby union

Rugby union

Rugby union, often simply referred to as rugby, is a full contact team sport which originated in England in the early 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand...

 forward who played club rugby for Swansea

Swansea RFC

Swansea Rugby Football Club is a Welsh rugby union team which plays in the Welsh Premier Division. Its home ground is St Helens Rugby and Cricket Ground in Swansea. The team is sometimes known as The Whites because of the primary colour of the team strip...

 and international rugby for Wales

Wales national rugby union team

The Wales national rugby union team represent Wales in international rugby union tournaments. They compete annually in the Six Nations Championship with England, France, Ireland, Italy and Scotland. Wales have won the Six Nations and its predecessors 24 times outright, second only to England with...

.

Rugby career

Jackson first joined first class Welsh team Swansea in 1893, around the same time as Albert Jenkin

Albert Jenkin

Albert Mortimer Jenkin was an English-born rugby union forward who played club rugby for Swansea, county rugby for Glamorgan and international rugby for Wales.-Personal life:...

. In 1895 Jackson was selected for the Wales national team for the opening match of the 1895 Home Nations Championship

1895 Home Nations Championship

The 1895 Home Nations Championship was the thirteenth series of the rugby union Home Nations Championship. Six matches were played between 5 January and 16 March...

. The game was played at home, at Swansea

Swansea

Swansea is a coastal city and county in Wales. Swansea is in the historic county boundaries of Glamorgan. Situated on the sandy South West Wales coast, the county area includes the Gower Peninsula and the Lliw uplands...

's St. Helen's to England. Jackson was one of five new caps brought into the Wales team, though he and Cardiff's

Cardiff RFC

Cardiff Rugby Football Club is a rugby union football club based in Cardiff, the capital city of Wales. The club was founded in 1876 and played their first few matches at Sophia Gardens, but soon relocated to Cardiff Arms Park where they have been based ever since...

 William Elsey

William Elsey (rugby player)

William Elsey was an English-born rugby union forward who played club rugby for Cardiff and won a single international cap for Wales in 1895.-Rugby career:...

 were the only new players in the pack. The Welsh forwards were outplayed by a livelier English pack in a game which saw Wales lose 6-14. Jackson was replaced for the next game by Harry Packer

Harry Packer

Harry Packer was an English-born international rugby union prop who played club rugby for Newport and was capped seven times for Wales...

 and never represented Wales again.

In 1899, Jackson was one of the Swansea team, who were invited to play against a French team in Paris. Although the French

France national rugby union team

The France national rugby union team represents France in rugby union. They compete annually against England, Ireland, Italy, Scotland and Wales in the Six Nations Championship. They have won the championship outright sixteen times, shared it a further eight times, and have completed nine grand slams...

international team was not officially formed until 1906, there was a French Rugby Championship, and an 'All France' team was assembled to face Swansea. The two teams met on 16 April 1899 which Swansea won 30-3 with Jackson believed to have scored the first try.