Jenkinson Gillian (2 results)

Paperback. Condition: Good. Wear present. Scruff marks on the front cover, back cover and at the sides of every page. Fold creasing present. Foxing. Small mark on every page. Discolouration present. Slight tearing present.

Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. Quarto measuring 8.5" x 11". Tan cloth over stiff paper boards. Contains 111 sepia-toned or black and white gelatin silver photographs measuring between 1" x 1" and 8" x 10" with captions. Additionally included are programs, clippings, cards, and letters, among other pieces of ephemera. Very good album with bowed boards, chips, and tears with very good contents. A scrapbook and photo album compiled by a young British woman, Gillian "Gill" Barrett Jenkinson (Hopper), beginning in the mid-1930s through the mid-1960s. Jenkinson grew up in Leeds and documented life in England through her late school years and time serving with the Navy at the end of World War II. The album is full of photographs, newspaper clippings, dance cards, programs, letters, and other ephemera from a decade in the life of this young woman. A letter written to her parents from school reads, "please come and take me home I am fed up. I shall run away soon, none of the big girls like me except the little ones." It is accompanied by a penciled note which reads, "about my first letter home from school in Cheshire." Other school records include an examination certificate from Oxford University and certificates from the Royal Drawing Society and London Institute of Needlework. She follows the Royal family and includes clippings about births, marriages, and goings on. During World War II Jenkinson joined the Women's Royal Naval Service. According to a letter featured here she began her training as a "Probationary Wren" in April of 1943 in Liverpool. Over the next few years Jenkinson she served on various ships including the H.M.S. Roseath, H.M.S. Dinosaur, H.M.S. Ringtail, H.M.S. Nightjar, H.M.S. Wellesley, H.M.S. Eaglet, and the H.M.S. Gosling. Jenkinson fills her scrapbook with photos of fellow enlisted men and women including some Americans, military paperwork, and letters from friends in the service. A typed memorandum on the Naval Fighter written on the H.M.S. Ringtail reads, "And it came to pass that in the Autumn of that year a band of fleet warriors in their winged chariots arrived In the land of Lanks hard on the city of Burs Chuff and they named the place Ring Tail for their camp was fashioned in the form of a circle and it was likened to the end of the World." A large group photo shows Jenkinson and other women recruits posed with the life saver ring from the H.M.S. Gosling. Additionally featured throughout are telegraphs and V-mail letters sent to her by friends and family including one which discusses the death of an enlisted friend, Bob, who appears to have been a boyfriend. In February of 1945, just before her discharge, Jenkinson married Surgeon-Lieutenant William Hopper, seen leaving the church in their uniforms. A letter from a fellow Navy woman in the Gosling wrote, "On behalf of the staff of "Gosfour" I write to wish you all the very best of luck for tomorrow and may your future life be a very, very happy one." Once discharged the Hoppers lived a quiet civilian life illustrated through cards, birth announcements, tickets, and newspaper clippings seen here. An extensive collection of ephemera following a young British woman's life including her school days and War service.