Cunard has welcomed back one of its oldest living former crew members as he prepares to celebrate his 100th birthday in the same month that Cunard will celebrate 100 years of sailing from Southampton.
November 2019 marks a century since the record-breaking superliner RMS Mauretania inaugurated Cunard’s Southampton express transatlantic service, linking the Hampshire shipping hub with New York City.
Former Cunard bellboy, John ‘Jack’ Jenkins MBE, who recently gave a moving speech at the D-Day commemoration ceremony in Portsmouth, was recently welcomed on board Cunard’s iconic ocean liner Queen Mary 2 by Captain Aseem Hashmi for a celebratory lunch.
Whilst on board, the captain invited Mr Jenkins to inspect the ship’s bellboys, to ensure they met the high standards of 1930s Cunard service.
Born at a time when ocean liners were the only way to travel, Mr Jenkins went on to join Cunard in 1933 as a bellboy and lift operator. RMS. Mauretania was the first Cunard ship he was appointed to – the very ship that established Cunard’s Southampton hub in the year of his birth.
After Mauretania was retired in 1934, Mr Jenkins served on board the Cunard ship Ascania until the outbreak of World War II. Joining the war effort, he fought at D-Day in 1945, before returning to the UK to take up a career in the merchant navy.
