Sprinter Marjorie Jackson-Nelson was commonly known as 'The Lithgow Flash', after the New South Wales town in which she was brought up. Jackson-Nelson became the Governor of South Australia on 3 November 2001. She won two Olympic gold medals (Helsinki 1952) and seven Commonwealth Games gold medals for athletics. Jackson-Nelson also founded the Peter Nelson Leukaemia Research Fellowship, for which she has fund-raised since 1977.
The daughter of William Alfred and Mary (née Robinson) Jackson, Marjorie Jackson was the first Australian woman to win an Olympic gold medal for track and field and the first Australian (male or female) to win an Olympic gold medal on the running track since 1896. During her athletic career Jackson broke world sprint records on ten occasions. In 1953 Jackson married Peter Nelson, an Olympic cyclist. Following his death from leukaemia in 1977 she launched the Peter Nelson Leukaemia Research Fellowship and has since dedicated herself to raising funds to sponsor research into fighting this disease.
In 1988, Jackson was nominated by the Governor-General and the Prime Minister as one of 20 living members of the '200 Great Australians' recognised by the Australian Bi-Centenary Committee. In 2001, Jackson-Nelson was appointed a Companion of the Order of Australia and, as Governor, was appointed a Commander of the Royal Victorian Order by Her Majesty The Queen on the occasion of the Royal Visit to Adelaide in February 2002.
View the full record at Australian Women's Register
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