Political groups
1979-1992: European Democratic Group
1992-1994: Group of the European People's Party (Christian-Democratic Group)
National parties
1979-1994: Conservative and Unionist Party
Biography
Christopher Murray Jackson was born in Norwich. After a National Service Commission in the Royal Air Force as a pilot, Murray Jackson read physics at Magdalen College, Oxford, of which he was an Open Exhibitioner. While there he founded the Magnates Club which eventually became the Oxford University Guild Society. He then trained in management with Unilever, becoming a senior manager of the Group in 1967. From 1974 to 1979, Murray Jackson was Director of Corporate Development of the Spillers Group.
He contested the East Ham South constituency as a Conservative in the 1970 General Election and the Northampton North constituency in 1974.
Christopher Murray Jackson represented Kent East at the European Parliament from 1979 to 1994. In Parliament, he served as the Conservative Spokesman on Development Policy, Agriculture, Economic Affairs and Foreign Affairs. In 1984 he proposed the inclusion of subsidiarity in the Draft Treaty on European Union and led a European Parliament delegation to the UK for discussions on the Draft Treaty with the Conservative, Labour, and Liberal parties, the CBI and the TUC. He was also a Member of the ACP-European Economic Community Joint Assembly, of which he was Rapporteur-General in 1985.
European Democratic Group meeting. Christopher Murray Jackson (C), Leo Tindemans (R) © European Communities 1989
Christopher Murray Jackson became Deputy Leader of Conservative MEPs in 1989, remaining in that position until 1991, and Co-President of the European Parliament's Working Group on Population and Development. From 1995 to 2002, he was Chairman of CJA Consultants Ltd and from 1997 to 2003, Chairman of Natural Resources International Ltd. He left the Conservative Party in 1999 and rejoined in 2007.
He was a member of the Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House) and of the Athenaeum Club. Murray Jackson was also Chairman of Governors of Bethany School, Goudhurst from 1999.
Christopher Murray Jackson died on 13 December 2019.
For more information on his time as an MEP, click here.
What's in the archives?
Parliamentary activity
The document typologies are varied and accurately reflect the work of the Member. They are divided into three series:
- Member of the Committee on Development and Cooperation
- Member of the Joint Assembly of the Agreement between the African, Caribbean and Pacific States and the European Economic Community
- Members of Intergroups/Political Associations/Study Groups
The first series focuses on the activities of Christopher Murray Jackson as a member of the Committee on Development and Cooperation. A first sub-series focuses on the activities of the Committee itself and the second sub-series looks at the topics and projects studied by Murray Jackson as part of his duties on the committee. These projects concerned both the EU and third countries, in particular African countries.
The second series focuses on Murray Jackson’s activities while he was a member of the Joint Assembly of the Agreement between the African, Caribbean and Pacific States and the European Economic Community. A first sub-series deals with the decision-making agreements and agreements concluded by the Assembly. The second sub-series focuses on the work themes of the Assembly:
- Conference “Towards the year 2000”
- Power supply
- Railway in Sudan
- The role of women in the development process
- Study by the International Institute of Economics of the University of Kiel on the impacts and perspectives of the Assembly
The third and final series concern the intergroups, political associations and study groups in which Murray Jackson participated:
- People-to-people and development intergroup
- Cross-border Intergroup
- Trevuo Intergroup for the opening of borders without passports and inspections
- SOS Hospital Association
- European Community Study Group in connection with the Political Studies Centre
Political activity
This series is divided into 7 series which demonstrate Christopher Murray Jackson's strong involvement both in the national or European parties of which he has been a member, as well as on many topics related to the UK:
- Member of the Group of European Democrats (formerly Conservatives) in the European Parliament
- Member of the European People’s Party
- Member of the UK Conservative Party
- Follow-up of cases concerning the application of Community policy in the United Kingdom
- Promotion of the UK position on the functioning of European institutions
- Member’s Administration
- Correspondence
The most important part of Murray Jackson’s fonds is correspondence. Through his various mandates and interests, he took care to keep most of the incoming and outgoing correspondence addressed to him or which he sent. He used his own scoring system to be able to sort them.
Public figure
The latter section brings together documents centred on Christopher Murray Jackson as a public figure, author of books and politician. Here, we find documents accessible to the public (particularly those contained in the Press section). This section also includes documents where Murray Jackson is the author, namely speeches and texts on various topics.