Roy Jenkins was born in Abersychan, Monmouthshire, on 11th November, 1920.
His father was Arthur Jenkins, president of the
South Wales Miners'
Federation and the
Labour Party
MP for Pontypool. Jenkins was educated at Abersychan Grammar School and
Balliol College,
Oxford,
where he won a first in 1941.
During the Second
World War Jenkins served in the Royal Artillery and for a while he
worked as a codebreaker at Bletchley Park.
A
member of the
Labour Party, Jenkins was to elected to the
House of Commons
in 1948. At first he represented Central Southwark but at the
1950 General
Election moved to Stechford,
Birmingham.
The
Conservative Party held power between 1951 and 1964. After the
Labour Party
won the 1964
GeneraI Election the new prime minister,
Harold Wilson,
appointed Jenkins as aviation minister. The following year, Jenkins became
home secretary. While in this post he encouraged the passing of private
members' bills that legalized homosexuality and abortion.
In
1967 Jenkins became chancellor of the exchequer, the second most important
post in the Cabinet. Over the next three years his main strategy was to get
the balance of payments in the black. By the time of the
1970 General
Election he had acquired the nickname of "Surplus Jenkins".
The
Conservative Party won the 1970 election. When the new
House of Commons
assembled Jenkins was elected deputy leader of the
Labour Party.
At the 1971 Party Conference he argued strongly for Britain to join the
European Community. Jenkins lost the vote by five-to-one and he upset the
party when he defied a three-line whip to vote with the Conservatives on
this issue.
The Labour Party won the
1974 General
Election and Jenkins once again became home secretary. The following
year he led the successful "yes" campaign in the referendum on membership of
the European Community. When
Harold Wilson
resigned in 1976 Jenkins stood for the leadership of the party. However, he
came only third behind
James
Callaghan and
Michael Foot.
In
1977 Jenkins left the
House of Commons
to become president of the European Commission in Brussels. In this post he
began to advocate the idea of European monetary union. This was considered
to be too radical at the time and the result was the introduction of the
European monetary system. However, he had laid the foundations for what was
later to become the single currency in 2002.
The political views of Jenkins were unpopular in the
Labour Party
and in 1981 he joined Shirley Williams, David Owen and William Rodgers in
setting up the
Social Democratic Party (SDP). Jenkins became leader of the new party
and in 1982 he returned to the
House of Commons
as MP for Glasgow Hillhead.
At
the 1983 General
Election the SDP-Liberal Alliance achieved 25% of the popular vote.
However, the SDP won only 6 seats. After the election Jenkins resigned as
leader and was replaced by David Owen. In the
1987 General
Election Jenkins lost his seat at Glasglow Hillhead. Created Lord
Jenkins of Hillhead he became the leader of the Liberal Democrats in the
House of Lords.
In
retirement Jenkins concentrated on writing and published several books
including an autobiography, A Life At The Centre
(1991) and two best-selling biographies,
Gladstone
(1995) and
Churchill
(2001). Roy Jenkins died on 5th January, 2003.
John
Simkin
