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My Father Bill Jackson started a Wrecker club in 1970 and sent out club newsletters to the members starting in 1971. The early newsletters were called The Dial Holmes club news. This title changed to The Wreckers International Newsletters in 1976 when he took the dealerships of Wreckmaster, Vulcan, Century and Nomar.

These newsletters contained articles, short stories and photos about the wrecker industry in the UK, Europe, USA, Canada, South Africa and the middle and far east.

My family and I have collected these newsletters and published them in a book in the large format of the originals. The first book is titled Bill Jacksons Wreckers International Newsletters 1976-1990. This 300 page book contains hundreds of interesting cameos of Wrecker History with photos and line drawings that all have Bills unique way of writing and ideas in them. Anyone who is interested in the Towing industry and its history will love this book.

It is available in two editions.

• 100 numbered special editions signed by Bills wife Cicely and myself
  For $100.00 plus postage
• 100 First editions.
  $80.00 plus postage.

For details and to obtain copies please go to Shop

I hope you enjoy this new Bill Jackson Book I had a great time putting it together and remembering most of the articles and the people in them.

Bruce Jackson

BILL JACKSON WAS:

• A wrecker and tow truck operator, in the 1950s, ‘60s, and ‘70s.
• A Holmes dealer for the rest of the world outside North America in the 1960s and ‘70s.
• Father of the Air Cushion, 1950s.
• The first Wrecker/Tow Truck/Heavy Rescue instructor in the UK and USA, the 1960s, 70s and 80’s.
• The first to write towing and recovery books.
• The first to make recovery training videos.
• A writer of press articles for 50

…and lived and breathed accident recovery and tow trucks all his life.

Bill Jackson died on the 25^th of October 2017 at the age of 91, after a lifetimes’ work in the towing and recovery industry worldwide.

He is survived by his wife Cicely and two sons, Bruce and Mark, and three grandsons, Jonathan, William and Desmond.

Bill left behind examples of his work for everyone in the towing industry to enjoy, including:

1. Photographic details of some of the tow trucks and wreckers he had owned and operated, photos of tow trucks he was involved in producing, and tow truck photos in general
2. 15 instructional videos on wrecker and recovery training
3. 8 educational books on recovery and rescue
4. The story of the recovery Air Bag / Air Cushion, with photos
5. A large unseen collection of newsletters, written in the 1970s,80s and 90’s
6. Artifacts from his Air Cushion and training career in the US and UK
7. Press articles from over 50 years in the industry

The purpose of this website is to let those of you who are interested read, download and view this collection of towing and recovery data that in most cases is still relevant today.

Bill Jackson was born in a street called Chaseside, in Enfield, Middlesex, UK in February 1925.  His parents George and Hettie Jackson had two sons Gordon and Bill.  Rumour has it that he was brought home from the hospital in his father’s Model T Ford breakdown truck.

George Jackson had emigrated to Canada when he was young and had been working for the Canadian Pacific Railway, until he was wounded in a railway accident.  At the beginning of World War 1, he came back to the UK to volunteer for the war effort but was rejected because of his injuries from his railway days.

He had seen the effect that the new Ford Model T was having in North America, and he approached the Ford Motor Company in the UK and became one of the first Ford dealers there.  He had two Ford dealerships: one in Enfield Middlesex, and one in Hertford, some thirty miles north of London.  Both had breakdown lorries (Tow Trucks).

Bill’s passion was for farming and agriculture, a career that ended when his father George got sick just after World War Two (in 1947), and Bill had to take over the two Ford dealerships.  Bill upgraded the breakdown service at both of his Ford dealerships by adding two Ford lorries fitted with Harvey Frost hand wind cranes.

In 1948 Bill was at a farm equipment sale and bought a used Holmes Wrecker (W45) that had survived the war.

The Holmes twin-boom wrecker changed everyone’s life in the towing industry, as it had twin booms that could be split, and was power operated.  Bill was so impressed by the Holmes machine that in the early 1960s he visited the USA, went down to Chattanooga and secured the Holmes dealership for the entire world outside North America; quite an achievement.

At the height of his Holmes distributorship he had agents or dealers in France, Germany, Holland, Belgium, South Africa, Nigeria, India and the Middle East.

In the late 1960s and early ‘70s, Bill developed the Air Cushion system of heavy recovery.  He got the idea from the local Fire Dept. who were using small air cushions blown up by compressed air to free accident victims from cars etc.  Bill reasoned that if this system worked for small weights it may also work for large trucks and loads, and he was right.  His Air Cushion recovery system that he developed in the early ‘70s is basically the same system that is in use today all over the world.  The Matjack system is the modern day direct descendant of Bill Jackson’s original Air Cushion system

At the end of the ‘70s, the Holmes family sold their company, and its virtual monopoly on the market started to disintegrate. Bill looked to the USA again for replacement products to sell and took distributorships for Vulcan, Century, Nomar, Ramsey winch and Wreckmaster (the crane not the training company).

Also in the early ‘70s, Bill looked to take his Air Cushion system to the USA, where they were demonstrated for the first time at the Massachusetts / New England Tow show in 1971.

In 1975 Bill was the first person to introduce wrecker testing and grading.

In 1977 Bill emigrated to the USA and started International Wreckers in Florida.

In 1982 he introduced the Interstater integral wrecker and the Recoverer to the USA.

Bill was the first recovery instructor, and started the first vehicle recovery school in the UK, and later on in the USA.  Many famous recovery operators and instructors were taught by Bill Jackson at one of his recovery schools.

In 1990 Bill sold his business, International Wreckers, and his Air Cushion business and retired to enjoy his boat in Florida.

Bill then started publishing books (8 in total), drawing from his experience gained over the years he had been in business.  He also started to publish training videos (15 in total) that covered all of the industry.  He became a guiding light and consultant to the accident and recovery industry in his later years and wrote many articles in the recovery press.

Bill always maintained and believed that accident recovery operators should work together with Fire Departments, and to that end he started the EX Team.

Bill was inducted to the Recovery Hall of Fame in the first batch of inductees at the International Towing and Recovery Museum, where you will find copies of his books and videos.

Bill Jackson was an icon in the Towing industry and will be sadly missed.

His written and published works live on through this website.

We have put together a selection of photos with captions  that illustrate Bill Jackson’s Wrecker, Recovery and Air cushion life. Hope you enjoy it.

Bruce Jackson 2017.