Person

The war was in its final throes when Thomas Wilton Jenkins, who had served in the Australian Army since 1914, was found guilty of desertion and sentenced to 10 years’ penal servitude.

Thomas was born in April,1880, in the village of Whitworth, near Spennymoor. His father, John Jenkins (b 1846) was a cabinet maker at that time having moved to County Durham from Tredegar in Monmouthshire.

By the time the 1891 census was taken, there were six children in the family and their father was running a pawnbroker’s shop in Spennymoor. Their mother, Esther (nee Bowman) gave her occupation as grocer so, possibly, the family ran the two businesses alongside each other.

Thomas must have been a bright boy as when he left school he trained as a book keeper/accountant, an occupation which would take him to Australia in 1908, arriving in Sydney on 8 October aboard the “Persic”.

Shortly after the onset of war, on 23 November 1914, Thomas volunteered to join the Australian Army in Liverpool, New South Wales (NSW), as a private in the 1st (Infantry) Battalion. He was just 5’6″ tall, weighed 9 stone 10lbs with blue eyes and light brown hair. He gave his religion as Baptist.

After basic training, Thomas embarked from New South Wales with other volunteers of the 3rd Reinforcements, 1st Battalion, on 11 February 1915, bound for Egypt. Two months later, the 1st Battalion took part in the ANZAC landings on 25 April 1915, and served there until the evacuation in December.

Back in Egypt early in 1916, Thomas transferred to the Anzac Provosts Corps, where he undertook primarily clerical duties. In the next few months, he was promoted first to corporal and then to the rank of sergeant. In the October of that year, he left Alexandria for the war in Europe. Thomas found himself stationed in the big Australian Army camp on Salisbury Plain, where his behaviour began to deteriorate. His first offence occurred on 25 January 1917, when he was severely reprimanded for drunkenness.

1917 was the year Thomas’s mother died and whether this caused his behaviour or whether Thomas had simply had enough of army life by then, he began on a downward spiral which would eventually end in his imprisonment. On 2 September 1917, he was severely reprimanded again, found guilty of “conduct to the prejudice of good order and military discipline, neglecting to comply with an order given by a superior officer in that he did absent himself from 11.15 on 25 August 1917 to 14.00 [on the same day] after being warned not to leave the lines”.

A month later, on 13 October, Thomas faced his first district court martial and was found guilty of being drunk on duty. As punishment, he was demoted to the rank of corporal and forfeited all pay for 30 days.

A further two months passed before yet again Thomas was in trouble, this time for failing to obey Daily Orders. He was sentenced this time to extra fatigue duties around the camp.

On 5 May, 1918, Thomas finally left for France to join the 1st Battalion again. On 8 June, he was reduced to the rank of lance corporal, as his own request. But his behaviour was still causing problems and on 19 July he was again reprimanded and fined one day’s pay when he was absent from his billet overnight without the necessary pass.

Thomas was again missing at 06.00 on 21 September 1918 and this time, when he returned, he was taken to a Safe Custody Compound in France, to face another court martial. He was transferred back to Perham Downs in Wiltshire where he was found guilty of desertion and sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment, though this was subsequently reduced to 5 years on appeal.

Thomas was taken to HM Prison Portland to serve his sentence but had it quietly suspended on 24 May 1919. He returned to Australia on 23 September 1919, to be discharged from the army on 22 November.

Initially, he was considered ineligible for any war medals, though eventually this decision was overturned and he was issued with the 1914/15 Star, British War Medal and Victory Medal.

Thomas died in Red Cliffs, Victoria, in 1923.

Civil Parish: Whitworth

Birth date: 1880

Death date: 1923

Armed force/civilian: Army

Residence: 14 Villier Street, Whitworth, Spennymoor (ecclesiastical parish of Spennymoor 1881 census)
44 King Street, Witton Park, Escomb (ecclesiastical parish of Witton Park 1891 census)

Religion: Baptist

Employment: Book-keeper/accountant

Family: Parents: John Jenkins (b 1846 in Tredegar), Esther Jenkins (nee Bowman) (1845-1917) from Spennymoor
Siblings: Edith Anne Jenkins (b 1869), Emma Jane Jenkins (b 1871), William Jenkins (b 1873), Mary Elizabeth Jenkins (b 1879), Maud Jenkins (b 1886)

Military service:

Service Number 1567
Private
1st Battalion, Australian Army 23-Nov-1914
Transferred to Anzac Provost Corps, promoted to Corporal, then Sergeant, 1916
Demoted to Corporal following court martial, transferred back to 1st battalion13-Oct-17
Returned to rank of Lance Corporal at own request 08-Jun-1918
Court martialled, sentenced to ten years’ imprisonment 22-Nov-1918
Discharged 22-Nov-1919

Medal(s): 1914/15 Star
British War Medal
Victory Medal

Gender: Male

Contributed by Kelloe Visitor, Trimdon Station