Capt Ian Samual Jenkins

1st Bn Lancashire Fusiliers
1944 to 1947

Dear Mr Laverick,

I regret to inform you of the death of my father, Ian Samuel Jenkins, previously Captain in the Lancashire Fusiliers. He died on 29th April 2019.
He was born 17th July 1925 and raised for most of his youth in Barrow-in-Furness, which was at that time in Lancashire. He was certainly very nostalgic for authentic locally produced Lancashire cheese!

He attempted to volunteer at the age of 17 but not allowed to serve at that age. Once reaching 18 in August 1944, he was then admitted to the ranks of the Royal Engineers.
On being offered a commission when he was 19, he was allowed to choose the Lancashire Fusiliers, which was then regarded as the premium regiment of his birth county.
He was appointed 2nd Lt, Lancashire Fusiliers on 12th August 1944, substantive Lt. in February 1945.
He was appointed as Captain while still only twenty yrs old in June 1946. I gather he may well have been the youngest captain in the Army at that time.
He was posted to India and based in Calcutta. He was commanding, I believe, A Company 1st Bn LF, whose duties were to try and help keep the peace between the warring factions during Indian Partition, serving till October 1947.
The apparent gap in his captaincy was due to being hospitalised with a ruptured appendix from which it took some time to recover.
I gather his service number 326919 indicated he was a volunteer rather than a conscript.

After serving in the Army he trained as a solicitor and practised in Weymouth, Dorset, until he retired in 1988. He had married a French nurse, Jeanette Lallement, in 1951 and they had two sons; my older brother Alan and myself, a lawyer and a doctor respectively.

I’m attaching a photograph from his service days and, as you request on the website, a more recent photograph. I’m also attaching his war record for your information, together with some correspondence I found concerning his ongoing interest in the Lancashire Fusiliers, the Regiment of which he was very proud and honoured to have served with.

Kind regards

Dr I Alastair Jenkins