Hugh Gater Jenkins was a Labour MP and government minister,
who later became a member of the House of Lords. His biography is on Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugh_Jenkins,_Baron_Jenkins_of_Putney
This article contains information and text from the
Wikipedia biography. I am grateful to my second cousin Val, who told me that we
are related to him.
Hugh was a grandson of Jessy Pinnuck (b1846), who was a
granddaughter of Richard Pinnuck (1759-1841), via his son George Pinnuck (1808-1858).
I am also descended from Richard Pinnuck, but via his son James Pinnuck (1799-1836).
Jessy Pinnuck married John Edward Gater in 1871. They later
had 6 children (5 girls and boy). One of their daughters was Florence Emily
Gater, who married Joseph Walter Jenkins in 1903. Their son Hugh Gater Jenkins
was born on 27 July 1908 in Enfield. The
1911 census shows Joseph Walter Jenkins (aged 31, a dairyman, born in
Aberystwyth), Florence Emily Jenkins (aged 32, assisting in business, born in
Enfield) and Hugh Gater Jenkins (aged 2) living at 161 Lancaster Road, Enfield.
Hugh later went to Enfield Grammar School. In 1930 he got a job working for Prudential
Assurance, who were his employers until 1940.
On 18 July 1936, Hugh married Ethel Marie Crosbie at St
Andrew’s Sudbury (between Harrow and Wembley, in NW London). The marriage
certificate shows that Hugh, aged 28, was an insurance official and that his
father Joseph was a tobacconist. The bride, who was known as Marie, was also
aged 28. Her father was Ernest William Crosbie, a RAF Squadron Leader. The 1939
Register shows the couple living at 2 Holtye Crescent, Maidstone.
During World War II Hugh served with the Royal Observer
Corps and the Royal Air Force from 1941, becoming an air traffic controller and
flight lieutenant, mainly based in Nottingham (2). After the war he worked at
Rangoon Radio until 1947, where he was director of English language programmes.
Hugh Gater Jenkins (1)
An ardent left-winger, Hugh was active in the Prudential
Staff Association, the National Union of Bank Employees and the actors' union
Equity, of which he was assistant general secretary 1957–64. He and his wife,
Marie, became active in the politics of his local community in Croydon, Surrey.
Hugh chaired his local Upper Norwood Labour Party and stood for the council.
Marie was elected to Croydon Council in 1949. He stood for Parliament without
success in Enfield West in 1950 and Mitcham in 1955. Hugh was involved in the
Victory for Socialism group opposed to the 1956 Suez War and had been a
supporter of CND and nuclear disarmament since its foundation in 1957. In 1958
he became a London County Councillor for Hackney North and Stoke Newington,
serving until 1965, and he served on the London Labour Party executive in 1962.
Hugh became MP for Putney, where he and Marie had moved, in
the 1964 election and became involved in the Tribune Group of MPs. He was made
Shadow Arts Minister in 1973 and became the Arts Minister in 1974, being sacked
in 1976 by the Prime Minister James Callaghan. While in office, he abolished
museum charges, sought to shift the emphasis of subsidy away from minority
interests, like opera and ballet, in favour of improving majority pursuits such
as film and television, and tackled the thorny issue of authors' public lending
rights (2).
He lost his seat in the 1979
General Election to David Mellor of the Conservative Party, and became Chair of
CND in the same year. He was made a life peer as Baron Jenkins of Putney on 14
May 1981. He attended every day at the House of Lords when it was in session
and he was in good health. Jenkins was highly active in the House of Lords. So
skilfully did he exploit the informal procedures of the Upper House that a
limit had to be imposed on the number of questions a peer could ask each day.
He circumvented the government's ban on the publication of Spycatcher by
reading lengthy extracts from it to ensure it was on public record in Hansard.
Hugh Gater Jenkins,
Baron Jenkins of Putney (1)
Hugh was a long time anti-nuclear campaigner and supporter
of CND. His anti-nuclear activities before the formation of CND led to
rightwingers within the Labour Party attempting to block him as a parliamentary
candidate. He was CND Chair from 1979 to 1981 and vice-chair from 1981. As a
Member of the House of Lords, he was chair of the Lords CND group. This was the
period in which CND underwent a major revival known as the 'Second Wave'.
Hugh’s wife Marie died in 1989 aged 82. In 1991, when aged
83, he married Maria Helena Pavlidis, who was 65. She died in 1994.
Hugh continued to write pamphlets and radio plays,
serving on the board of the Royal National Theatre. His later plays were typed
on an early Amstrad 256. He said he became 'computerised' late in life. His
parliamentary correspondence and speeches continued to be typed on the same Amstrad
256 until he entered a care home near the end of his life in 2004. He died on
26 January 2004 aged 95 in Richmond upon Thames.
Hugh lived in Kenilworth Court, Lower Richmond Road, Putney.
This is a block of flats near Putney Bridge. On the building there is a blue
plaque that is inscribed
“Lord Hugh Jenkins, 1908 - 2004, Putney MP, 1964- 1979,
Minister for the Arts, lived at Kenilworth Court. The Putney Society.”
Notes
1. The photos in this article were licensed from the National Portrait Gallery website.
2. Info from obituary in The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2004/jan/28/guardianobituaries.obituaries
