Brigadier B C Jackman OBE MC
Captain Bruce Jackman not long after the Long Medan action
Bruce Jackman is part of a 2nd Goorkha family: his father, Colonel RC Jackman, was an officer in the Regiment from 1934-48 and his son Toby was to serve with it from 1991-94.
Born at Dehra Dun in 1940, he spent 5 months Basic Training in the ranks of the King’s Royal Rifle Corps (the 60th Rifles) before going to Sandhurst in 1959 and being commissioned into the 1st Battalion of the 2nd Goorkhas in late 1961. He commanded 8 Platoon, B Company, during the Brunei Revolt the following year. In late 1963 he commanded D Company on operations in Sarawak and was slightly wounded. After a spell as Battalion Intelligence Officer he commanded C Company in Sarawak and Hong Kong. He was mentioned in despatches in June 1965 and awarded the Military Cross in December that year.
From December 1965 until September 1972 he was successively ADC to the General Officer Commanding 17 Gurkha Division in Seremban, Malaysia, Assistant Training Officer, Mortar Officer and Adjutant of the 1st Battalion, instructor and the Mons Officer Training School and Operations/Training Officer of the 1st Battalion. After attending the RAF Staff College at Bracknell he was Deputy Assistant Adjutant General in the Directorate of Army Recruiting in the Ministry of Defence before returning to the 1st Battalion as Second-in-Command. He commanded the 2nd Battalion in Hong Kong during Operation CULEX, the 1979 deployment to counter mass illegal immigration across the Chinese border and incursions by Vietnamese boat people, for which he was appointed OBE.
After command he was an instructor at the National Defence College and Joint Services Defence College before becoming Chief of Staff and Deputy Commander of British Gurkhas Nepal. He did tours of duty in
the Defence Commitments branch of the Ministry of Defence and as Chief of Personal Staff to the Deputy Commander in Chief Allied Forces Central Europe. His final appointment was as Commander 43 Infantry Brigade of the Territorial Army. Retiring in 1992, he was Secretary and Chief Executive of the Territorial and Volunteer Reserve Association in Western Wessex, later to become the Reserve Forces and Cadets Association.
Bruce Jackman was Secretary of the Sirmoor Club from 1994 to 2003 and Chairman from 2003 until 2016. He is married and has one son and one daughter.