The Jinks Family of Redhill


Robert James Jinks and his wife Emily were Master and Mistress of the Boys' and Girls' sections of St John's Schools, Pendleton Road, Meadvale. Robert James seems to have been generally known by his second name so is referred to as James in the pictures below. He was in post from 1876 to 1919. His wife was in post from 1876 to 1901. Many of the pictures and some of the information has come from Mrs G. Wood but were sourced in turn from Mr Jinks' grandson, Aubrey James Hawley (known as Jim). Picture sources are acknowleged individually
     
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Above: - This is the earliest known photo of the Jinks family, taken in the back garden of a house in Brambletye Park Road where the family moved to when the house on the school site was vacated during enlargement of the school in the 1880s or 1890s. Emily Jinks is seated, James Jinks is standing. The daughter standing on the left is Bertha, the daughter standing on the right is Agnes. The daughter seated at the front is Katherine. The only son, Herbert, is standing at the back wearing a hat.(Picture courtesy Jim Hawley)
St John's School had its beginnings in 1846 so had seen the coming and going of a number of Masters and Mistresses (as the head teachers were then called) by the summer of 1876 when Mrs and Mrs Jinks took up their posts. Mr Jinks of Bishop’s Hull School in Taunton and Miss Turner (as Mrs Jinks was then) of Hungerford National School were engaged to be married and would be the third married couple to hold the posts. Anticipating the probable course that nature might take in this circumstance, and remembering the previous problems, a condition imposed upon the couple by the School's Management Committee was that should the new Mistress be incapacitated from attending in School (by virtue of being pregnant) a substitute should be supplied by her without expense to the Committee. As she went on to have four children this must have been a fairly costly condition. This and another condition that a trainee teacher was to live in a house supplied for them on the school premises were accepted, and the Jinks took up their relative positions at Michaelmas 1876. This was the beginning of a settled period, Mrs Jinks remaining for 25 years, retiring in 1901, Mr Jinks continuing as head of the Boys' School until 1919, a period of over 42 years.


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A portrait of Emily Jinks - perhaps she was still Miss Turner when this picture was taken. All that is known about her at the moment is that she was born in Taunton.

(picture courtesy Jim Hawley)
About Robert James Jinks    
He was born on lst October 1851 the tenth child of 12 (known) children.  His parents were John Jinks (born Topsham, Devon in 1813) and Mary (nee Anna Maria Canterbury born Topsham in 1814). John was a mason who died in Exeter in 1904 aged 90, and his wife died in Exeter in 1883. None of Robert James Jinks' brothers was an academic, each was was either in the building trade or had something to do with the sea.  He married Emily on Setember 19th 1876.
     

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The school as it appeared in 1846. The school was considerably enlarged in 1861 so this small building would have been only a part of the school that was later known by the Jinks. The view is from St John's churchyard across the road. (Picture courtesy St John's School)   Part of the enlarged school, including the clock tower, built in 1861, as it would have been known by the Jinks. (Picture courtesy Jim Hawley)
     

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James Jinks with boys in 1889. (Picture from Author's collection)   James Jinks stands firmly in control on the left in this picture of Empire Day 1909. The part of the school is the same as in picture 4. (Picture from Author's collection)
     

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James Jinks with the school football team in 1911
(Picture from Author's collection)		   A portrait of James Jinks in 1913
     
Notes regarding the Jinks' time at St John's School
....1878 - In May 1878 there was pressure on the School Management Committee to accept a School Board (control transferred from the church to the Local Authority) at a time when the budget was £125 in deficit. In order to avoid such an imposition the Committee was forced to try to raise money from various outside sources. In spite of this crisis Mr and Mrs Jinks asked for, and were granted, increases of £10 and £5 respectively and they got another £5 each in September 1879.
....1890 - In January 1890 an influenza outbreak caused 80 children in the Girls' School be away .Headmistress Mrs Jinks also caught it and was off for three weeks, the school being run by assistants only.
....1894 - Enlargement of the school as described in pictures 3 and 4 above had continued when the boys had occupied a whole new building in 1884. The girls and infants were able to occupy the space vacated and must have had plenty of room. Inevitably this did not last and, before ten years had passed they were finding space rather cramped. In September 1893 Mrs Jinks was recording that the smallness of Girls’ School classrooms was making work difficult. In April 1894 she wrote that standard II in the Girls’ School worked in the main room (hall) as their classroom was not large enough for paperwork, and other classes were also crowded. In June 1894 an architect came to look at the Girls’ School and in September work altering classrooms created additional room.
. ..1895 - May 1895 saw the Jinks’ daughters, Katherine and Bertha, following their parents into the teaching profession and taking their Pupil Teachers’ examinations.
....1901 - Mrs Jinks retired as head of the Girls' School at the end of 1901 after 25 years. Her husband remained at the Boys' School.
. ..1915 - Ex-pupil Richard Farmer, who is still alive today, started at St John's aged five in 1915. When he went to the Boys' School Mr Jinks was still the Headmaster and Richard remembers him as a short, bald, red-faced man.
.. .1919 - Mr Jinks retired after more than 40 years in charge of the Boys' School, having stayed on in order to see the school through the bad times of WW1

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The Jinks family on holiday in Jersey c1910. James Jinks is on the left, Mrs Jinks is centre. Their daughter Katherine is standing between them with her husband, Cyril Hawley, behind her with the baby. The women on the right are their daughters Agnes and Bertha. (Picture courtesy Jim Hawley).   James and Emily Jinks' son, Herbert James Jinks as a young boy. (Picture courtesy Jim Hawley).
     

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James Jinks in cadet uniform c1895-1900 having entered the Royal Navy at Devonport Dockyard. In the righthand picture he is the 2nd from left in the back row. (All three pictures courtesy Jim Hawley).
 

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Herbert Jinks out of uniform. It seems that he never completed his training, being invalided out following the loss of a finger in a dockyard accident. His health deteriorated and he contracted TB. (Picture courtesy Jim Hawley).  
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 The house pictured in 2006

When the Jinks started at St John's School their was a house on site that went with their posts. As the school was enlarged the house was eventually demolished as part of the school enlargement and they moved into the house pictured above in Brambletye Park Road. (Picture courtesy Jim Hawley).

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Emily Jinks in the garden of their brambletye Park Road house. The veranda was at the back of the house and was for the use of the unwell Herbert Jinks. (Picture courtesy Jim Hawley).   Herbert was later sent by his family to South Africa where he earned a living doing clerical work. On 3rd August 1909 he married Inez Booker, a matron at a public school in Durban. Herbert was then 29. In 1911 their son Cyril was born. Herbert died in 1915. (Picture courtesy Jim Hawley).
Katherine, Bertha and Agnes
All three became teachers like their parents, Katherine for a short while only as she got married and had children.  Bertha taught in a school in Westminster and never married - she may have stayed in London until she died.  Agnes taught, it is believed, at Barnet, also remaining unmarried.
     

18		   Photo 18 on the left shows the Jinks family grave at the top of the path leading from the church gate opposite St John's School entrance. The grave is the one on the very corner, a point that Mr and Mrs Jinks must have passed many times when accompanying schoolchildren into church (St John's was a church school).
The inscription reads: - 'In loving memory of Emily Jinks, who died May 29th 1924, for 25 years headmistress of St John's Girls' School. Also in loving memory of James Jinks, entered into rest February 1st 1927, for 42 years head of St John's Boys' School' (There is no mention of his first name being Robert).
A further inscription reads: - 'Also of their son Herbert JT Jinks, who died in South Africa October 1915, interred at Lusikisiki.' (Picture from author's collection)
     
The above is but a brief glimpse of the lives of some of the members of the Jinks family.