Branch of Service

Army

Conflict

World War I (1914-1918)

Date of Enlistment

01/09/1914

Date of Discharge

16/09/1919

Place of Enlistment

Helenavale, Western Australia

Gender

Male

Date of Birth

23/08/1877

Place of Birth

Wallsend NSW

Address (at enlistment)

Royal Military College, Duntroon ACT

Occupation

Driver

Next of Kin

Alice Elson (sister), Duntroon Street, Hurlstone Park NSW

Service Number

71, 930

Final Rank

Driver

Final Unit

44 Battalion

According to Howarth, Jenkins was employed as a groom from April 1913 at the Royal Military College, Duntroon. He was a veteran of the Boer War who enlisted in Western Australia with the 16th Battalion at the beginning of the war (service number 71) and landed on Gallipoli in April 1915. On 19 May the Turks launched a major attack on the Anzac positions and Jenkins received a shrapnel wound to the right hand from a Turkish bomb. After treatment in Cairo he was evacuated back to Australia in July 1915 to recover but in April 1916 was promoted to Sergeant in the Transport Section of the 44th Battalion (with service number 970) and was sent to England shortly afterwards. At his own request Jenkins reverted to the rank of Driver and arrived in France in November 1916. He served the remainder of the war with the Transport Section of the 44th Battalion during which time they fought at Messines (June 1916), Broodseinde Ridge and Passchendaele (October 1917), Amiens (August 1918) and the Hindenburg Line (October 1918).

Description - height 5 feet 6 inches, weight 133 pounds, chest 36-39 inches, sallow complexion, blue eyes, dark brown hair, Church of England, scar on the left cheek.

Ross Howarth, 'Civilians employed at the Royal Military College of Australia, Duntroon, from 1911 to 1931', RMC Duntroon, November 2000
NAA RecordSearch - Series B2455 (First Australian Imperial Force Personnel Dossiers, 1914-1920)
AWM First World War Unit Embarkation Rolls