William Albert Jenkins (9 September 1878 – 23 October 1968) was a Welsh coal exporter and ship owner and Liberal politician.
Contents |
Jenkins was born in Swansea the son of Daniel and Elizabeth Jenkins. In 1906 he married Beatrice Tyler of Pirbright in Surrey. His wife died in 1967. [1]
At the age of 13 years, Jenkins went to work as an office boy in the Swansea docks where he acquired a thorough knowledge of the coal and shipping trades. He later set up his own business W A Jenkins & Co, wholesale coal and coke factors and shipbrokers. [2] His business expanded greatly during World War One. [1] He served for some years as President of the Swansea Chamber of Trade and was Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Shipbrokers. [2]
Jenkins was first elected to Parliament at the 1922 general election as a National Liberal. He may not have sat in the 1918-1922 Parliament but his support for Lloyd George at this time and his industrial success between 1914-1918 perhaps qualified him as ‘one of the hard-faced men who look as if they had done well out of the war’ in Stanley Baldwin’s famous phrase. [3] Jenkins was elected to represent Breconshire and Radnorshire which he won in a straight fight with Labour. At the 1923 general election he was returned unopposed as a Liberal (without suffix or prefix) for the same seat but in 1924 he faced a three-cornered contest against Labour and Conservative opposition and he lost the seat to the Tories. [4] During his time in Parliament, Jenkins was a contributor to debates concerning industrial questions and Welsh issues. [5] He did not fight again a Parliamentary election again until 1936 when he stood as the candidate of the National Government with the support of the local Liberal and Conservative parties [6] under the description National Liberal at a by-election in Llanelly. He did not win the seat however which was held for Labour by Jim Griffiths the president of the South Wales Miners' Federation with a majority of 16,221 votes, virtually unchanged since the 1935 general election.[7]
Jenkins sat as a member of Swansea Borough Council from 1927 to 1954 and served as Mayor of Swansea between 1947 and 1949. In 1928 he was appointed a Justice of the Peace for the County of Glamorgan and was sometime Chairman of the Bench of Magistrates, Gower Petty sessional division. [2] He was a member of the Court of Governors and Council of University College, Swansea. [8]
During his long life, Jenkins held a number of other public positions including:
Jenkins was knighted for political and public services and his award of a Knight Bachelor was announced in the New Year Honours List of 1938 [9] He was also awarded the Borough of Swansea Order of St John Council. Jenkins also qualified for a number of foreign decorations. In 1933 he became a Knight, First Class, of the Order of the Dannebrog (Denmark); a holder of the Gold Cross Royal Order of George I of Greece, (1938) [10] and was Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur (France) in 1949. [2]
Jenkins died at the age of 90 years on 23 October 1968.[11]
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Sidney Robinson |
Member of Parliament for Brecon & Radnor 1922 – 1924 |
Succeeded by Walter D'Arcy Hall |