Lieutenant David Lewis Jenkins

David Lewis Jenkins was born on 02nd June 1886 in Llanfihangel, Cardiganshire, Wales, 7 miles southeast of Aberystwyth, the son of Captain David Jenkins and his wife Anne  (née Davies). He was baptised in Llanfihangel on 20 August 1886, his parents’ address Gilfach Farm, and his father’s occupation given as Master Mariner.  His father is not with the family on the censuses, being away at sea. His parents married in 1884 and had five children.  He had an elder sister Hannah Mary, born in 1884, and younger siblings Catherine Anne 1890, Jane Blodwen 1894, and John Walter Peter Jenkin Jenkins, 1896.

His father, born in Wales, became a U.S. citizen in 1890 and had to reapply for British citizenship in 1898, after returning and having lived for at least five years in the U.K. His address on his citizenship application is shown as Enkrateia, Llanon.

At the time of the 1891 census his mother, 36, with three children and a general servant is found at Enkrateia House, Moat Lane Street, Llansanttfraid.  Hannah is 6, David 4, and Catherine 1 year old.

He attended Llanon Council School.  In 1899 the local school was closed for two months due to an epidemic of scarlet fever.  Catherine, Blodwen and John contracted the disease in February. It is not known if David was at home at the time; he left the next year to pursue further education at Ellesmere College in Shropshire.

His father died at the age of 49 at the turn of the century, and was buried in Llansantffraid churchyard on 3rd January 1900.

In 1901 his widowed mother, 47, with Catherine, Blodwen, and John, is at Enkrateia, Llansantffraid.  Catherine was a pianist and attended the London College of Music.

David is found, age 14, a boarding pupil at St. Oswald’s College, Ellesmere, Shropshire, about 90 miles from his home. Whilst at the school he was active in sports and played cricket and rugby, at which he represented the college. He passed his Oxford Local Examinations in various subjects including English Grammar, History, Shakespearian Essay, Welsh and Mathematics, and earned his Pitman Shorthand Certificate.  He evidently joined the college’s Officer Training Corps.

After leaving the college in 1902, David began his banking career. By 1905 he was living in Crickhowell, near Abergavenny, Brecknockshire, employed by the National Provincial Bank. Whilst living in Crickhowell he was a keen member of the Rugby and Cricket Club.  His sister Hannah married in February 1905 in Stockwell, London.  The newspaper report of the wedding records that she was given away by her brother David, of the N.P. Bank, Crickhowell.  His gift to the newly-weds was a leather-bound bible, a gold-mounted clock, and a gold brooch.  Tragically, Hannah died the following year, aged 22, shortly after the death of her 12-month old son, David.

In 1911 his mother,Anne, sister Blodwen, 17, and borther John, 14, are still at Enkrateia. His mother is 57, living on private means, Blodwen is a student, and John is at school.  Catherine, 21, is a student in the Alexandra Hall of Residence, Aberystwyth.

David is found living in two rooms at 34 Ilton Road, Cardiff.  He is 24, working as a bank clerk.  The census records that he speaks both Welsh and English.

He worked at various branches and before enlisting was the manager of the National Provincial Bank in Abergele.

He enlisted at St George's Hall in Liverpool on or about 04th September 1914 as Private 16046, joining the 17th Battalion of The King’s Liverpool Regiment.  Barely two weeks later, on 16th September, he was commissioned into the 5th Battalion Royal Welsh Fusiliers, a Territorial unit.

On 19th July 1915 the Battalion sailed for the Dardanelles as part of the 53rd (Welsh) Division and on 09th August landed at Suvla Bay, suffering heavy losses. David was wounded in the operation and evacuated to a hospital ship, but  returned to Gallipoli, where the temperature falls into the 30s (F) in the winter.   The Cambrian News reported on 10th December 1915, “News has been received that Lieutenant D. L. Jenkins, Enkrateia, is in hospital in Alexandria suffering from frostbite.” (The battalion was evacuated on 11th December and moved to Mudros then to Alexandria.)

His promotion to Lieutenant was Gazetted on 07th June 1916.  It appears that David spent some time in Egypt and was then returned home, as later in 1916 he joined the Royal Flying Corps and underwent training at No. 2 School of Aeronautics at Oxford University.  He was able to spend Christmas at home that year.

For reasons unknown David left the R.F.C. and rejoined his R.W.F. battalion. He was transferred to the 10th Bn R.W.F. (3rd Division) on 14th May 1917 and was posted to France.  Before leaving for the front he spent some days at home on leave.

In May 1917 the division was at Arras, and after some time in the Louverval sector the battalion moved to Ypres in September, where they fought in the third Battle of Ypres at the Battle of the Menin Road (20th-25th September).  On the morning of 26th September 1917, the first day of the Battle of Polygon Wood, the 10th Bn. R.W.F. attacked the village of Zonnebeke, suffering heavy casualties from machine gun fire near the railways station.  David was killed in action during the attack.  

His body was not recovered from the battlefield or was subsequently lost as he has no known grave and is commemorated on the Tyne Cot Memorial in Belgium. 

Those United Kingdom and New Zealand servicemen who died after August 16^th 1917 are named on the Tyne Cot Memorial, a site which marks the furthest point reached by Commonwealth forces in Belgium until nearly the end of the war.

The Tyne Cot Memorial now bears the names of almost 35,000 officers and men whose graves are not known. The memorial, designed by Sir Herbert Baker with sculpture by Joseph Armitage and F.V. Blundstone, was unveiled by Sir Gilbert Dyett on 20 June 1927.

The memorial forms the north-eastern boundary of Tyne Cot Cemetery, which was established around a captured German blockhouse or pill-box used as an advanced dressing station.

A report of his death appeared in the Liverpool Daily Post on 15th October 1917:

Lieutenant D. L. Jenkins, formerly manager of the N.P. Bank, Abergele, has been killed in action. The deceased joined the Liverpool Pals in September 1914. Obtaining a commission in the R.W.F. (Flintshire Territorials), he served through the Dardanelles campaign. He afterwards served in France. Lieutenant Jenkins was in command of the first company of his battalion to reach their objective, and before going over the top (says his superior officer) he said to the men: "Now boys! Hen Wlad fy Nhadau !". Lieutenant Jenkins was 31 years of age and the son of Captain and Mrs Jenkins, Enkrateia, Llanon, Cardiganshire. He was a nephew of the Rev. L.D.Jenkins, vicar of Abergele.     

“Now boys! Hen wlad fy Nhadau”   translates as “Land of my fathers”.

Captain Richards, a fellow Officer, wrote: “I still feel dazed and hardly realise that he has gone. He was absolutely lionhearted. On one occasion at least that I know of he deserved some very high recognition of his work.”

David earned his three medals. His 1914-1915 Star was returned for amendment. 

Probate was granted to his mother Anne in the amount of,£1,129-13s-1d.

His mother died in 1927 aged 73.

His brother John enlisted in the Royal Fusiliers and went to France on 04/05/1916.  He was discharged to commission on 25/09/1917, the day before David was killed.  He served in the Indian Army and was promoted to Lieutenant.  He survived the war and became a sea captain like his father.

David is commemorated on the following memorials -

Llanon War Memorial

Abergele War memorial

Llansantffraid Parish Church Plaque War Memorial

In 2014 a plaque was installed in the Ellesmere College Chapel to honour the 111 pupils and 4 members of staff who were killed during the First World War.

David is also commemorated on the family gravestone in St. Bridget’s Churchyard, Llansantffraid -

  IN EVER LOVING MEMORY

              OF LIEUT.

    DAVID LEWIS JENKINS

     (10TH R.W. FUSILIERS,

 DEARLY BELOVED SON OF 

   MRS. JENKINS AND THE 

     LATE CAPT. JENKINS)

      WHO GAVE HIS LIFE

  FOR KING AND COUNTRY 

  AT ZONNEBEKE, BELGIUM

        SEPT. 26TH, 1917

         AGED 31 YEARS

   PEACE EVERLASTING