He studied at York School of Art before winning a national scholarship to the Royal College of Art in 1886. There he won a gold medal and in 1888 a travelling scholarship to the Académie Julian. On his return to London in the early 1890s, he worked for a time on the staff of "The Idler" and for "Cassell's Magazine" as a black-and-white artist. He was awarded a silver medal at the 1900 Paris International Exhibition and at the Carnegie International in Pittsburgh in 1914. Jack was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy of Arts in February 1914 and a full Academician in 1920 and his Diploma Work, in the RA archives, is an oil painting of his daughter Doris and the family dog entitled On The Moors.