Charles Jenkinson (priest)

With seven siblings and irregular work for his father as a docker, Charles Jenkinson grew up experiencing overcrowded East-end urban conditions, even living for a time with his grandmother and an uncle at 78 Sussex Street, Poplar because of a lack of space at home.

[1] As a member of the Church Socialist League, Jenkinson campaigned against pew rents at St James-the-Less and at Thaxted worked for improved living conditions for farm labourers.

In the assessment of John A. Hargreaves, 'her devoted companionship was crucial in sustaining Jenkinson' through war, study, and 'his remarkable ministry' in the Church of England.

[1] John A. Hargreaves summarises Jenkinson's appearance thus: A tall, bespectacled figure with a ruddy complexion and a steadfast and composed look in his penetrating eyes, he exhibited a Spartan lifestyle, wearing for many years an old overcoat purchased for a shilling in a church jumble sale.

His most cherished possessions were his books and his bicycle, and he was most characteristically remembered, soft-collared and flannel-trousered, hurtling through the streets of Leeds, with his coat-tails flapping in the wind ...

Neither Cambridge nor Oxford, nor indeed Yorkshire, made the slightest impression on his native Cockney accent and his speech was characterized by its high-pitched rapid delivery.

A doughty debater, he displayed immense physical and mental energy, his natural modesty giving way in later years to a greater assertiveness, an intolerance of opposition, and an occasional brusqueness.

But he would conduct worship in a Canterbury cap, cassock and gown, and occasionally address political meetings in the same garb when he did not have time to change after a service.

[1] Jenkinson's theology was shaped by evangelicalism, Christian socialism (particularly the thought of F. D. Maurice and Percy Dearmer), and Anglo-Catholic leanings characterised by Catholic modernism.