Jenkins' birth parents both died when he was young in Liverpool (father in 1887 and mother in 1888) and he was raised by his grandparents in Bala, Wales.
He was first a school teacher, then a university lecturer in Bangor and Cardiff. He wrote a number of history books for scholars, lay readers and children, and contributed over 600 items to the Dictionary of Welsh Biography. He was noted for the quality of his teaching as well as for his scholarship.

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