In 1931 Derek married his first wife, Poppet, daughter of Augustus John, a match deeply disapproved of by her father, though not for long as the couple separated within months. ‘Wife number two was Pamela Mitford, sister to Nancy, Diana, Unity et al. Stupid, innocent and good, Pam had not the foggiest notion of her husband’s work — after typing out one of his papers the only words she understood, she said, were ‘and’ and ‘the’ — but the two of them doted on horses and dogs, in particular long-haired dachshunds, and it was largely through their animals that they communicated, Derek signing his letters to her with a horse’s head, she with a doggie’s paw. On the first day of their honeymoon Derek received the news that his twin had been killed in a sledding accident: for two days he spoke to no one; he never referred to Vivian’s death, nor did he ever recover from it. The marriage might have foundered at this point, but in fact lasted 15 years, partly because of the war and partly because of his wife’s restful temperament. Calm and childlike, with a gift for cooking and domesticity, Pam provided a comfortable haven for her highly-strung husband, a respite from the stress of his wartime occupations.
Once war was declared Derek was determined to volunteer for active service, despite powerful opposition from Lindemann, who wanted to keep him in the lab. But strings were pulled and in 1940 Derek joined the RAF, where his scientist’s expertise proved invaluable in helping operate the new radar equipment used by Fighter Command in countering the German bombing offensive. Night after night Flying Officer Jackson went up with his squadron of Bristol Beaufighters on operational patrols hunting down enemy ‘customers’, as they were known, demonstrating an extraordinary accuracy in locating targets by means of radar signals and his exceptional skills as a navigator. As one of his co-pilots recalled, Jackson had the mind of the first-rate scientist … and his interceptions became polished and balanced exercises. To him, an enemy aircraft bristling with lethal weapons was merely an object in the sky, whose relative position and movement were to be determined by an exact and precise use of the cathode ray tubes with which he was so familiar.
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