David Jenkins – Royal Naval Reserve, S.S. Minorca

 Ordinary Seaman David Jenkins – Royal Naval Reserve, S.S. Minorca

Early Life and Family Background

William Jenkins and Mary Jones
marriage certificate
Holy Trinity Chapel, Llanguicke

David Jenkins was born in 1896 in Rhyndwyclydach, Glamorgan, the son of William Jenkins and Mary Jones, who married in 1883 at Holy Trinity Chapel, Llanguicke. Raised in the Swansea Valley, David grew up in a close-knit mining community where hard work and family ties shaped daily life.

1911 Census

The 1911 Census records the Jenkins family living at the Colliers Arms, Trebanos, Glamorgan. William, aged 48, was employed as a Coal Miner Hewer, while his wife Mary, aged 47, worked in the public house, recorded as Serving at the Bar. Their daughters Margaret, 25, and Mary Jane, 23, were both Assistant Teachers, while David, aged 15, was working as a Lever Worker at the Steel Works, a common occupation for young men in the industrial Swansea Valley.

Naval Service

In early adulthood, David Jenkins enlisted in the Royal Naval Reserve, serving as an Ordinary Seaman aboard the merchant vessel S.S. Minorca. Like many reservists, he was assigned to a merchant ship operating in support of the war effort, carrying essential supplies through dangerous waters patrolled by German U‑boats during the height of the First World War.

S.S. Minorca – 11^th December 1917

On 11^th December 1917, the British steamship S.S. Minorca was on passage from Genoa to Carthagena in ballast when she was intercepted by the German submarine U‑64, commanded by Kapitänleutnant Robert Moraht. Approximately 2½ miles off Cabo de las Huertas, on the southeastern coast of Spain, U‑64 stopped the vessel and subsequently sank her.

Although many merchant ships sunk during this period suffered heavy loss of life, this attack claimed the lives of all aboard. David Jenkins and the rest of the crew were lost in the sinking.

Death and Commemoration

David Jenkins
Plymouth Naval Memorial, Plymouth
credit - findagrave

As his body was never recovered, Ordinary Seaman David Jenkins has no known grave. His name is commemorated on the Plymouth Naval Memorial, which honours sailors and Royal Naval Reserve personnel who were lost at sea during the First World War.

His sacrifice stands as a testament to the dangers faced by merchant seamen and naval reservists who kept Britain’s wartime supply routes open, often at great personal risk