J. Geraint Jenkins

Content sourced from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

John Geraint Jenkins (1929–15 August 2009) was a Welsh-speaking historian who specialised in Wales’ maritime history and rural crafts.

He was born near Llangrannog in Ceredigion into a seafaring family and went to local schools, including Cardigan Grammar School. He studied geography and anthropology at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth, graduating in 1950, and earned a master's degree there under E. G. Bowen and Alwyn J. Rees.

Jenkins began museum work in Leicester (1952–53) and then became Assistant Keeper at the Museum of English Rural Life in Reading, also taking a part-time lectureship at the University of Reading. In 1960 he returned to Wales as Assistant Keeper at the Welsh Folk Museum at St Fagans, and nine years later he was promoted to Keeper of Material Culture. In 1977 he moved to the Welsh Industrial and Maritime Museum in Cardiff, a period he recalled as the happiest of his career. He received a Doctor of Science degree from the University of Wales in 1981.

In 1987 he returned to St Fagans as Curator, but disagreements with management and what he saw as English interference marred the job, and he retired early in 1992 to Penbryn. He served as High Sheriff of Dyfed in 1994–95 and chaired Ceredigion County Council in 2002–03.

Jenkins died on 15 August 2009, leaving his wife Nansi and two sons; another son had died in 2000. He is remembered for his key role in preserving and interpreting Wales’ maritime history. He published more than 50 books, many about west Wales seafaring, and he also studied Welsh folk life, including farm tools, rural crafts, the woollen industry, and Cardiff ship-owners.