David Jackson who died on Tuesday 26th September, made a significant contribution to the worlds of aviation and sport in both Britain and Ireland through his business career with Aer Lingus and in sport with London Irish Rugby Club.

In a career that spanned six decades Belfast born David trained as an accountant and moved to London where he joined Aer Lingus in the early 1960s. As Administration Manager-Britain he was responsible for the airline’s property interests in the capital including the Cromwell Road coach terminal (to Heathrow), various ticket offices and the consolidation of the sales and marketing, reservations and administration teams into one, new West End office in Poland Street.

David was Assistant General Manager-Britain when the airline launched its ancillary activities programme in the early 1970s.

Together with his colleague the late Conor McGrath, he played a key role in the development of the 800 room London Tara Hotel in Kensington. That was to be the catalyst for the subsequent acquisition of the Copthorne Hotel group from British Caledonian; David served on the Board of the hotel group.

Seeing the rapid expansion in leisure and golf in particular, David had a leading role in the airline’s acquisition of the Foxhills estate in Surrey and its subsequent development as a prestigious golf and leisure resort at London Heathrow the airline, through a combination of organic growth and acquisition in which David was extensively involved, developed a large ground handling business that had leading international airlines among its customers before it was sold to Swissport UK.

Away from the airline and hospitality industries David’s sporting passions involved rugby and golf. He made a major contribution to London Irish rugby club both as a player and an administrator.

While he played for the Extra ‘A’ team at The Avenue in Sunbury, it was off the field that he had a significant impact on the club’s affairs. David applied his considerable business expertise to the operational and financial challenges of running an amateur rugby club in the London area. He served on numerous committees and was chairman of a number of club companies that had an essential role is seeing the club through the difficult period as the game struggled to cope with the implications of professionalism.

That the amateur club survived and continues to thrive is due in part to his contribution. He served as President of the club from 1983-86. He also was a founder of the London Irish (rugby) Golf Society which continues to raise vital funds for the club and selected charities.

London Irish extends its sincere sympathy to David’s wife Laura, to his daughter Kim and son Nick and his extended family and friends.

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Please join us for a service to celebrate David’s life on
Friday 20th October at 2:40pm
Mortlake Crematorium, Kew Meadow Path, Townmead Road, Richmond, TW9 4EN

Guests are invited to come for refreshments after the service,

The Kew Gardens Hotel
292 Sandycombe Road
Richmond,
TW9 3NG

Please RSVP for catering numbers to RememberingDavid@exithere.com

If you have any questions please contact the funeral directors, Exit Here on 0208 050 2000 or email RememberingDavid@exithere.com

Instead of flowers we would prefer charity donations, details will be in the order of service.

Webcast Information
If you cannot attend but wish to watch the service live, please go to https://watch.obitus.com and log in with these details:
Username: caku1328
Password: 324859
The recording will be taken down after the service but re uploaded a day later where it will be available to watch again for 28 days using these same login details.