George Jennings (10 November 1810 – 17 April 1882) was an English sanitary engineer and plumber who invented the first public flush toilets.

The entrances to these were elaborate metal railings and arches lit by lamps, with interiors built of slate and later, of ceramic tiles.

At The Great Exhibition at Hyde Park held from 1 May to 15 October 1851, George Jennings installed his Monkey Closets in the Retiring Rooms of The Crystal Palace.

Jennings said that 'the civilisation of a people can be measured by their domestic and sanitary appliances' whilst the objectors had stated that 'visitors are not coming to the Exhibition merely to wash'!

[citation needed] During the Crimean War, Jennings headed the sanitary commission sent out by the British Government to improve the condition at Selimiye Barracks hospital at Scutari, Sebastopol at the request of Florence Nightingale.

George Jennings supervised the public facilities at the thanksgiving service for the Prince of Wales at St Paul's Cathedral to celebrate his recovery from typhoid.

In sanitary science he was avant coureur in his day and generation, and was among the first Engineers to practically carry out the theories of the wise men of the time.

The South London Press reported the accident as follows: 'It is with feelings of regret, which will be joined in by all who knew him, that we have this week to record the death of Mr George Jennings of Ferndale, Nightingale Lane, Clapham, universally known as the celebrated engineer of Palace Wharf, Lambeth.

Mr Jennings' death occurred under the following painful circumstances: On Thursday evening, according to his usual custom, he, together with his son George, drove home in his gig.

The horse, of a very restive character and hard in the mouth, whilst crossing over the Albert Bridge, shied and threw Mr Jennings and his son against a dust cart.

Jennings also posthumously won for his firm, the Grand Prix at Paris in 1900, for his siphonic pan which had been a major development in lavatory design.