About: Enderby Jackson

John Enderby Jackson (14 January 1827 – 10 April 1903) was an English musician, composer, and the self-described founder of the British brass band competition and the cheap day railway excursion. After training in the family business of candle-making and soap boiling, Jackson became involved in music and learned a variety of instruments. He proceeded to join a dance band, where he witnessed an early brass band competition. In 1851 he arranged a contest in Kingston upon Hull, but his first success came in 1853 at Manchester's Belle Vue Zoological Gardens, where he helped organise a successful contest of brass bands. He began writing test pieces and in 1860 was approached to run a competition at The Crystal Palace in London. This event proved highly successful, and ran annually until 1863.