Clive Jenkins

David Clive Jenkins rose from humble beginnings to become leader of one of Britain's largest Trade Unions, and also the "King Maker" of the Labour leadership, he was a confidant of the rich and famous, in adddition to becoming a property owning millionaire.
David Clive Jenkins was born on 2nd of May, 1926, at 4 Maes-y-Cwrt Terrace, Port Talbot, the youngest son of Sam and Miriam Jenkins. Their eldest son Tom, was born six years earlier. Tom incidentally became General Secretary of the Transport Salaried Staff Association Union.
Clive attended the Central School, and after passing the scholarship examination, progressed to Port Talbot County School. He left there and in April 1940 found his first job at the works of Robert B. Byass (Mansel Works) in the metallurgical test house. The works manager, Charles H. Cunliffe, was impressed with young Clive, and paid for his train fare and fees, to attend Swansea Technological College - twice a week - to study metallurgy.
Clive later stated, "Cunliffe almost killed me by his generosity, because it was the time of sustained Luftwaffe bombing raids on Swansea, and Mount Pleasant, the road to the college, came under heavy incendiary bombing and machine gunning."
Cunliffe also stopped Clive from becoming a Cadet Officer in the Royal Navy, claiming he was in a reserved occupation. At the age of fouteen Clive was the youngest student to ever enrol for his City & Guilds, which he passed, and was promoted to Shift Chemist. He then qualified as a Day Chemist and finally as Chief Chemist.
He joined the Labour Party at the age of fourteen - the first in his family to do so - after been given a book all about Karl Marx and Marxism, by the then manager of Taibach Co-operative Society.
One story from his childhood is worth recalling. His father Sam, because of the nature of his work, was entitled to free rail travel for him and his family. They decided to take their annual holiday in Brighton, with Clive a very young baby. Thay stayed at a boarding house, run by a foreign woman, and during the night, while he family were asleep, a rat crept across the floor, and bit baby Clive on his ear. By way of an apology, the landlady gave Sam and Miriam her bronze clip-boarded bible. Where is that bible now I wonder?
Charles Cunliffe moved to three different factories over the next few years, taking Clive with him. They eventually ended up at The Eaglesbush Works in Briton Ferry, where Clive became night shift foreman in 1947. The following year he became Branch Secretary and Treasurer of Association of Scientific Workers Union. Eventually, at the age of 28, in 1954, he became the youngest ever to hold the post of National Officer. He founded the ASTMS Union for white collar staff, and the meteoric rise in membership from 22,000 to 650,000 was astounding. They held enormous power at the TUC (Trades Union Congress) with their massive block vote. It was Clive who was instrumental in the choice of Michael Foot as Leader of The Labour Party, and it was he who had Foot replaced by Neil Kinnock after the election failures.
For the sake of brevity it cannot be included here, all his achievments, or the world figures he befriended. For many years he was constantly on our TV screens in chat shows, many times appearing on Any Questions, with his controvesial comments being widely reported by the media. He was also a columnist for Tribune, Daily Record and Daily Mirror. His claim that he bought a country cottage out of his fees from The Daily Mirror, provoked much anger from left wing followers. He also found time to write nine books.
In contrast to his earlier life as a Calvanistic Methodist - his family attended Duffryn C.M. Chapel - Clive became something of a gourmet, a bon viveur, a very rich and discerning man, with a sensitive palate for his fine claret. In his youth he actually became a temperance campaigner against alcohol, and did lay preaching around the area for the cause.
There was one occasion, many years later, when Clive asked Sir Norman St. John Stevas - then a Conservative Cabinet Minister, later a member of the House of Lords - to join him for lunch at his "local" which turned out to be The Ritz Hotel in London. Norman St.John Stevas was irritated that The Maitre d'hotel didn't recognise him, but welcomed Clive warmly. In fact Clive had an account at The Ritz.
It is thought that Clive amassed his vast wealth from winning libel cases in the High Court, but he claimed it was from shrewd property deals. In 1953 he snapped up a four storey house in St. Marks Crescent, Regent's Park, for little more than £3000, it was later valued at £500.000. His country house in Harlow, Essex was bought in 1952 for £5,600, and sold for £295,000. He made a lot of money doing after dinner speaking, and for television appearance money. In 1988 he received a golden handshake from his Union said to be worth more than £200,000. He even had his boat christened The Affluent Society.
Clive's private life proved to be as colourful as his personality. In 1956 he travelled to Copenhagen with an American divorcee who had been ordered to leave Britain on the expiry of her permit. There the pair married - an arrangement designed to save the woman, a former member of the American Communist party, from McCarthyite persecution. Their marriage was disolved in 1963. The same year he married Moira McGregor Hilley, with whom he had a son and daughter. He left his wife and family at the age of sixty-two - the year he took retirement - and set off for Tasmania with a twenty-three year old girl-friend. Their intention was to work for The Wilderness Movement to conserve miniature penguins. His marriage to Moira Hilley was dissolved in 1989. He bought a house in Tasmania, but returned to London the following year to write his memoirs. It is thought, but not confirmed, that he started a hotel and restaurant business in Tasmania which failed.
Clive died after a short illness on 22nd of September, 1999, at the age of 73.
There was a cartoon of Clive done by Mark Boxer in 1971, which was purchased by the National Portrait Gallery in 1987.
By Brynmor Evans. December 2012.
David Clive Jenkins was born on 2nd of May, 1926, at 4 Maes-y-Cwrt Terrace, Port Talbot, the youngest son of Sam and Miriam Jenkins. Their eldest son Tom, was born six years earlier. Tom incidentally became General Secretary of the Transport Salaried Staff Association Union.
Clive attended the Central School, and after passing the scholarship examination, progressed to Port Talbot County School. He left there and in April 1940 found his first job at the works of Robert B. Byass (Mansel Works) in the metallurgical test house. The works manager, Charles H. Cunliffe, was impressed with young Clive, and paid for his train fare and fees, to attend Swansea Technological College - twice a week - to study metallurgy.
Clive later stated, "Cunliffe almost killed me by his generosity, because it was the time of sustained Luftwaffe bombing raids on Swansea, and Mount Pleasant, the road to the college, came under heavy incendiary bombing and machine gunning."
Cunliffe also stopped Clive from becoming a Cadet Officer in the Royal Navy, claiming he was in a reserved occupation. At the age of fouteen Clive was the youngest student to ever enrol for his City & Guilds, which he passed, and was promoted to Shift Chemist. He then qualified as a Day Chemist and finally as Chief Chemist.
He joined the Labour Party at the age of fourteen - the first in his family to do so - after been given a book all about Karl Marx and Marxism, by the then manager of Taibach Co-operative Society.
One story from his childhood is worth recalling. His father Sam, because of the nature of his work, was entitled to free rail travel for him and his family. They decided to take their annual holiday in Brighton, with Clive a very young baby. Thay stayed at a boarding house, run by a foreign woman, and during the night, while he family were asleep, a rat crept across the floor, and bit baby Clive on his ear. By way of an apology, the landlady gave Sam and Miriam her bronze clip-boarded bible. Where is that bible now I wonder?
Charles Cunliffe moved to three different factories over the next few years, taking Clive with him. They eventually ended up at The Eaglesbush Works in Briton Ferry, where Clive became night shift foreman in 1947. The following year he became Branch Secretary and Treasurer of Association of Scientific Workers Union. Eventually, at the age of 28, in 1954, he became the youngest ever to hold the post of National Officer. He founded the ASTMS Union for white collar staff, and the meteoric rise in membership from 22,000 to 650,000 was astounding. They held enormous power at the TUC (Trades Union Congress) with their massive block vote. It was Clive who was instrumental in the choice of Michael Foot as Leader of The Labour Party, and it was he who had Foot replaced by Neil Kinnock after the election failures.
For the sake of brevity it cannot be included here, all his achievments, or the world figures he befriended. For many years he was constantly on our TV screens in chat shows, many times appearing on Any Questions, with his controvesial comments being widely reported by the media. He was also a columnist for Tribune, Daily Record and Daily Mirror. His claim that he bought a country cottage out of his fees from The Daily Mirror, provoked much anger from left wing followers. He also found time to write nine books.
In contrast to his earlier life as a Calvanistic Methodist - his family attended Duffryn C.M. Chapel - Clive became something of a gourmet, a bon viveur, a very rich and discerning man, with a sensitive palate for his fine claret. In his youth he actually became a temperance campaigner against alcohol, and did lay preaching around the area for the cause.
There was one occasion, many years later, when Clive asked Sir Norman St. John Stevas - then a Conservative Cabinet Minister, later a member of the House of Lords - to join him for lunch at his "local" which turned out to be The Ritz Hotel in London. Norman St.John Stevas was irritated that The Maitre d'hotel didn't recognise him, but welcomed Clive warmly. In fact Clive had an account at The Ritz.
It is thought that Clive amassed his vast wealth from winning libel cases in the High Court, but he claimed it was from shrewd property deals. In 1953 he snapped up a four storey house in St. Marks Crescent, Regent's Park, for little more than £3000, it was later valued at £500.000. His country house in Harlow, Essex was bought in 1952 for £5,600, and sold for £295,000. He made a lot of money doing after dinner speaking, and for television appearance money. In 1988 he received a golden handshake from his Union said to be worth more than £200,000. He even had his boat christened The Affluent Society.
Clive's private life proved to be as colourful as his personality. In 1956 he travelled to Copenhagen with an American divorcee who had been ordered to leave Britain on the expiry of her permit. There the pair married - an arrangement designed to save the woman, a former member of the American Communist party, from McCarthyite persecution. Their marriage was disolved in 1963. The same year he married Moira McGregor Hilley, with whom he had a son and daughter. He left his wife and family at the age of sixty-two - the year he took retirement - and set off for Tasmania with a twenty-three year old girl-friend. Their intention was to work for The Wilderness Movement to conserve miniature penguins. His marriage to Moira Hilley was dissolved in 1989. He bought a house in Tasmania, but returned to London the following year to write his memoirs. It is thought, but not confirmed, that he started a hotel and restaurant business in Tasmania which failed.
Clive died after a short illness on 22nd of September, 1999, at the age of 73.
There was a cartoon of Clive done by Mark Boxer in 1971, which was purchased by the National Portrait Gallery in 1987.
By Brynmor Evans. December 2012.