John Jenkinson

John Edward Jenkinson (17 October 1858 – 29 November 1937) was a member of the New Zealand Legislative Council. Active with trade unions for all his life, he was appointed to the Legislative Council in 1892 by the Liberal Government to achieve a Government majority, and he served until 1914.

Early life Jenkinson is a son of John Hartley Jenkinson, who emigrated to Dunedin in the early 1840s. Jenkinson senior was the first jettykeeper at the harbour of that city. Subsequently, his father moved to Port Molyneux, near Balclutha where, at various times, he was chairman of the road board, school committee, and county council. His mother was Jane Jenkinson (née Mathews).

Jenkinson junior was born in Dunedin in 1858 He was educated at various schools in the Otago region, and completed his studies under J. B. Park, of the South School, Dunedin. On leaving school in 1875, he was employed by Sparrow and Co., at the Dunedin Foundry, and served an apprenticeship of five years to boilermaking and iron shipbuilding.

Union activity Three months after joining the Dunedin Boilermakers' Union he was elected president of that body, and visited Australia to represent New Zealand at a conference with New South Wales, Victorian, and South Australian representatives, concerning the formation of an Australasian Federation of Boilermakers' Unions. He was one of several appointees by the Liberal Government to achieve a Government majority. He resigned on 27 May 1893, but was reappointed only two weeks later on 6 June. Appointments were for seven-year periods, and he was reappointed on 6 June 1900 and 1 July 1907. He retired from the Legislative Council on 30 June 1914. Annie Jenkinson died aged 50 years, and was buried at Karori Cemetery on 3 November 1915. He remarried on 30 September 1919, to Nellie McCredie, the daughter of Colonel Matthew McCredie.

He was a Justice of the Peace and also an Official Visitor to the Sunnyside Asylum. In 1901, Jenkinson lived in Wellington, where he owned the New Zealand Cycle Works. He was buried at Karori Cemetery next to his first wife on 30 November. He was survived by his second wife and his son Edgar, whilst his son Horace (1893–1917) was killed in action in France in World War I.