Mr. Edwin James Jackman, Senior Partner in the firm of Jackman and Lord, was born in 1864, in Christchurch, and educated in the Colony. In his boyhood he had some experience in farming, and subsequently got a preliminary insight into mercantile life in Christchurch in the employment of the late Mr. T. H. Green, bacon curer, with whom he was for three years. In his nineteenth year, he joined the New Zealand Farmers' Co-Operative Association, and was appointed manager of the grocery department in 1886. It was then but a very small concern, and gave little promise of the large dimensions to which it has since grown. In the latter part of 1902 Mr. Jackman and Mr. Lord entered into partnership in their present business. Mr. Jackman was married, in 1891, to a daughter of the late Mr. Berry, of Christchurch.