Charles Morris Jenkins
Charles Morris Jenkins (1866-1899)
1900 Obituary [1]
CHARLES MORRIS JENKINS, third son of Mr. Thomas Jenkins, J.P., of Pantyscallog, Dowlais, was born on the 9th October, 1866.
He received his early training at the Dowlais Ironworks, where he was subsequently engage& for nearly six years.
In 1889 he entered the service of the Natal Government,, and was first engaged on the survey for a railway proposed to be made between Vorulam and Stanger.
At the beginning of 1891 he was transferred to the construction staff of the Van Renen Pass-Harrismith section of the Natal-Orange Free State Railway, which work was completed in July, 1892.
Mr. Jenkins was next engaged on a scheme to supply the town of Harrismith with water, which work he saw successfully carried through. He was then employed as contractor’s engineer on a section of the Delagoa Bay Railway, where, however, his robust health was not proof against the all-prevalent malaria; but, notwithstanding repeated attacks of fever, he remained at his post till the completion of the contract, and after recruiting his health in Natal, he was able to take up work in March, 1894, on the staff of the Natal Government for the construction of the Charlestown-Johannesburg Railway. Mr. Jenkins was placed in local charge of the Paardekop-Standerton section, and displayed great energy in carrying out the work on his section. In June, 1896, he was appointed to the contractor’s staff of the Pretoria-Pietersburg Railway. He had to conduct a survey under very trying circumstances, owing to horse sickness, rinderpest, drought, and consequent famine in that part of the Transvaal. It was no unusual thing for the party to be without adequate food, and water, even then very bad, could only be obtained at great distances.
Mr. Jenkins, however, with characteristic determination proved equal to the occasion, for when his cattle and horses died, and after trying mules with little better success, he continued the work on foot, often walking long distances to and from camp.
After the survey he was engaged on the construction, first on the comparatively healthy portion of the line at the Pretoria end, and afterwards in the more unhealthy neighbourhood of Pietpotgieters Rust, where the resourcefulness he had shown on the survey had to be repeated.
On the completion of the line to Pietersburg Mr. Jenkins obtained the contract for a section of the Machadodorp-Ermelo Railway, also in the Transvaal, on which he was engaged at the time of the outbreak of hostilities.
The works coming to a standstill in consequence of the war, he proceeded to Natal, and having had some training as a volunteer at home, he was successful in obtaining a commission as lieutenant in Thornycroft’s Mounted Infantry. He fell at Colenso on the 15th December, 1899. His cheerful disposition and love of all manly sports made him many friends, and his memory will be cherished most by those who knew him best, and will long remain green in Natal.
Mr. Jenkins was elected an Associate Member of the Institution on the 16th May, 1893.