Arthur Jenkins

Who was Arthur Jenkins?

Arthur Jenkins was a Welsh trade unionist and Labour Party politician.

Jenkins was a coal miner's agent who studied at the Sorbonne in Paris and at Ruskin College, Oxford, before becoming Vice-President of the South Wales Miners Federation. At the 1935 general election he was elected to the House of Commons as the Member of Parliament for Pontypool, replacing former Labour minister Thomas Griffiths. He held the seat until his death in 1946 at the age of 62.

Jenkins married Hattie Harris, the daughter of a local steelworks manager. Their son Roy Jenkins was a Labour, SDP and Liberal Democrat politician, serving as Home Secretary, Chancellor of the Exchequer and President of the European Commission and as Liberal Democrat leader in the House of Lords.