the loss to humanity

[michaeldr]

Name: JENKINSON, JOHN WILFRED

Initials: J W

Nationality: United Kingdom

Rank: Captain

Regiment/Service: Worcestershire Regiment

Unit Text: 12th Bn.

Secondary Regiment: Royal Fusiliers

Secondary Unit Text: attd

Age: 43

Date of Death: 04/06/1915

Casualty Type: Commonwealth War Dead

Grave/Memorial Reference: Panel 104 to 113.

Memorial: HELLES MEMORIAL

see 'With the Twenty-Ninth Division in Gallipoli' by the Rev O. Creighton

"Captain Jenkinson's death was, I believe, described later in The Times as one of the greatest losses to science since the war began. He stood quite alone in England, if not the world, in his own subject, Embryology, and had recently embarked on a course of highly specialized investigation in that subject, in which he was a pioneer. I later met some officers who told me that their hope, when at Oxford, had been that when they had taken their degrees in science, they might be able to attend his lectures. He had a quiet modest nature that I fear none of us at the time realized his reputation. He had recently been gazetted Captain, but said nothing about it, preferring to act as a lieutenant. His letters show what a keen student of nature he was while on the peninsula, and how the historical surroundings of the place appealed to him. Strangely enough, the three other pioneers in Embryology have all died within six months of his death."

I wonder who the other three pioneers in Embryology were?

................................................................................

Name: LUCAS, KEITH

Initials: K

Nationality: United Kingdom

Rank: Captain

Regiment/Service: Royal Flying Corps

Unit Text: Hampshire Aircraft Park

Age: 37 Date of Death: 05/10/1916

Additional information: Son of F. R. and K. Lucas; husband of Alys Keith Lucas, of The Hilden Oaks, Tonbridge, Kent. Sc. D., F.R.S. Engaged on experimental and research work, mainly with aeroplane compasses.

Casualty Type: Commonwealth War Dead

Grave/Memorial Reference: AH. 348.

Cemetery: ALDERSHOT MILITARY CEMETERY

see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keith_Lucas

[Desmond7]

May I go off on a tangent?

posing the impossible question .. what of those who lost a parent in WW1, were affected by this loss (for better, for worse) ...

Did it 'form' their personality?

Which 'achievers' of major note lost a father/mother figure in such circumstances?

Good heavy thinking thread BTW.

[Alan Tucker]

Arthur Marwick (RIP) in his 'model' of the impact of war on any society emphasises the way in which modern war tests a society and its institutions and ideas. From this many benefits can flow. This has to be placed alongside the potential loss from the 'Lost Generation'.

This is most obviously seen on the scientific and technological front (wireless, aviation, motor vehicles, medicine (e.g. blood transfusion etc) but also socially with inroads into the class system and the death knell of domestic service. Many examples could be cited. Dr Alexander Fleming spent the war at a military hospital at Boulogne and saw many blood poisoning cases that he determined to look for a 'germ killer' after the war. He 'discovered' peniclillin in 1928 and the rest is history.

[PhilB]

On the other hand, Hitler was a casualty who went on to cause much suffering. It is quite possible that some men (on both sides) were killed who might have gone on to similar evils. The war didn`t only kill the good ones!

[KF Kelly]

Michaedr: Excellent article on Moseley. Thanks for posting it.

Kevin

[michaeldr]

No problem Kevin,

I wish I could find something equally as good on Jenkinson

regards

Michael

[saintconor]

Lance Corporal 16138 Francis Ledwidge - 1st Battalion Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers

[wainfleet]

Ernest Farrar, killed in September 1918, was considered a composer of some note in his day, though one hears little of his work now. He was a prolific writer who would undoubtedly have written a lot more music had he lived, and some might well have entered the mainstream repertoire. He was the music tutor of, and a major influence on, Gerald Finzi, who was 17 when Farrar was killed and was greatly affected by his loss, as well as that of his three brothers (though only one of them appears on CWGC for some reason). Finzi went on to develop a uniqely poignant, elegiac musical voice, embodying something of the sense of loss which still lies under the surface of British society following the Great War.

Hector Hugh Monro, aka “Saki”, was a perceptive and original writer of whom one would have expected more after the war, had he not been killed in 1916.

Rupert Brooke was an established poet before the war. His war poetry has not had the impact of Owen's or Sassoon's, but he was nobody's fool - a gifted young man of whom, again, more was expected.

Time and again, when reading memoirs or regimental histories, one comes across the phrases “very promising”, “a tragic loss”, “had he lived”, and so on. Clearly an enormous amount of talent was lost to us, and the postwar world was a far poorer place for it.

[BarbaraG]

On 13/12/2008 at 18:19, michaeldr said:

No problem Kevin,

I wish I could find something equally as good on Jenkinson

regards

Michael

 

Not sure if this would be of interest, the CWGC hold a 'File of correspondence regarding Captain John Wilfred Jenkinson' CWGC/8/1/4/1/3/67.

 

[The Scorer]

On 13/12/2008 at 18:27, saintconor said:

Lance Corporal 16138 Francis Ledwidge - 1st Battalion Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers

 

And his Welsh "equivalent", Elis Humphrey Evans (15th Battalion, Royal Welch Fusiliers)  who, under his Bardic name of "Hedd Wyn", was posthumously awarded the Chair at the 1917 National Eisteddfod. They're both buried in the same Cemetery at Artillery Wood.  

[michaeldr]

BarbaraG,

Thanks for the tip

[Wexflyer]

Padraig Pearse. Poet, school principal, barrister. Wrote Mise Éire, later set to music by Sean O'Riada. Irish Volunteers, executed 1916.

Sir Roger Casement. Diplomat, humanitarian. Author of the Casement Report, exposing conditions in the Belgian Congo. Formed Irish Brigade. Executed 1916.

James Connolly. Trade union leader and politician. Founder of the Irish Citizen Army. Executed 1916.

Thomas MacDonagh. Poet, editor of the Irish Review. Irish Volunteers, executed 1916

Joseph Plunkett, Poet. Irish Volunteers - his aide-de-camp was Michael Collins. Executed 1916.

John McBride. Husband of Maud Gonne. Commander of the Irish Brigade in the Boer War. Irish Volunteers, executed 1916.

 

 

Edited 9 June , 2020 by Wexflyer

[The Scorer]

Moving the topic on in a slightly different direction, all the sportsmen and women who died and never achieved what they might have.

[michaeldr]

1 hour ago, The Scorer said:

all the sportsmen and women who died and never achieved what they might have

 

Lt-Cmdr F S (Cleg) Kelly DSC, RNVR doesn't quite fit the above since he reached his peak with an Olympic gold medal for rowing in 1908; well before the war

However, as seen elsewhere on this forum, 

 he was a very talented musician and certainly represents a loss in that respect, if not others

Edited 9 June , 2020 by michaeldr

[Michelle Young]

GSK Butterworth. Killed on the Somme. A composer of note 

[Fattyowls]

11 hours ago, Michelle Young said:

GSK Butterworth. Killed on the Somme. A composer of note 

 

Lost but not forgotten

[BarbaraG]

George Sainton Kaye Butterworth was born in Paddington, the family moved to York in 1891. 

 

 

https://yorkcivictrust.co.uk/heritage/civic-trust-plaques/george-butterworth-1885-1916/