Arnold Jackson entered the Brasenose College, Oxford in 1910. He rowed and played football and hockey for the College, being Captain of the Hockey Team. He won the mile race for Oxford against Cambridge three times and was President of the Oxford University Athletic Club.
At Stockholm, American hopes were high to win a gold in 1500 m, as the USA dominated miling at that point, and seven of the runners in the final were from the USA. The race started at a modest 65 second pace, then Norman Taber from USA took the lead and sped up the pace. At the bell, Abel Kiviat, a world record holder in 1500 m from USA, came first, followed by Taber and John Paul Jones, a world record holder in the mile from USA. On the last turn, Mel Sheppard and Jackson also joined the crowd on his heels, with Sweden's Ernst Wide closing fast. With 50 yards left, Jackson came even with Kiviat and Taber, as Jones and Wide started to fade. Jackson summoned one last burst and captured the gold in 3:56.8. Kiviat and Taber both clocked 3:56.9, and the photo had to be reviewed before officials handed the silver to Kiviat.
During the World War I Jackson earned the D.S.O. with three bars. The war put an end to his sporting career, for he was wounded three times and left permanently lame. He went on to be a member of the Olympic Council and worked in industry and as a Justice of the Peace in the United States for many years, returning to Oxford to live in the 1960s.
Arnold was an honest man. I can truthfully say that no one I have ever met was more able to get down to the bottom of whatever he felt and believed in and then find the serenity to be okay with it, even when honesty was the toughest road to follow.
Arnold was for many of us the nicest, kindest guy we knew, but he had an incredible anger about a lot of the things that went on around him and in the world.
Arnold's legendary humility would make it inappropriate, I suppose, to iconize him or make him into a more heroic figure than he ever wanted to be while living his life.