Basil Jenkyns

Life Stories

Hot Under The Collar
A Life in the Church

Basil Jenkyns was born in Pembrokeshire, West Wales in 1930. His father, a vicar, died before Basil was a year old. His remaining family moved to Cwmtwrch in the Upper Tawe Valley north of Swansea, where his mother’s family owned a small farm. He attended the local primary school before being sent as a boarder to St Edmund’s School, Canterbury in 1940.

After school, Basil decided to follow in the footsteps of several family members and follow a vocation in the Church. He gained a BA degree at Lampeter followed by an MA at Oxford. Ordained in 1957, Basil took up a curacy in North London.

From that moment onwards, Basil’s ministry developed as a full and frank engagement with what mattered to members of Church and parish. His forthright, energetic, compassionate style would see him labelled as ‘outspoken’ or ‘controversial’ by media commentators. But he concentrated on the needs of parishes and local residents and never shrank from ‘difficult’ questions or situations.

He ministered in North London, Lancashire, Somerset, Norfolk and Worcestershire before retiring, first to South Wales then to Suffolk. While Vicar of Chard he was made a Prebendary of Wells Cathedral. Despite his popularity and opportunities to advance within the hierarchy of the Church, Basil Jenkyns preferred to follow a vocation of service in the parish.