The discovery of two engraved military serving trays resulted in finding extensive , graphic war details and an unusual account about living with Aborigines in Alice Springs in the early l950s.
One tray was presented to Sgt Jenkin and Family , with best wishes for the future, from the Gallipoli Coy. The other , pictured , Ranleigh silverware, was given to WO2 (Warrant Officer) D.K.Jenkin from the Sergeants Mess at UN. Coy. UNSWR ( the University of New South Wales Regiment ) , Duntroon Military College, Canberra. In the case of the Gallipoli Coy tray, it almost certainly came from Duntroon .
It seems the late Daryl Kenneth Jenkin , listed in Townsville's North Queensland Garden of Remembrance , was the recipient of one, if not both trays , a grandfather had been gassed in WW1..
Billed as Platoon Sergeant, ll Platoon D Company 4RAR , South Vietnam 1971- l972, Jenkin was interviewed in August 2004 for the University of New South Wales Australians At War Film archive, which can be downloaded.
In it , he said he had been born in Adelaide in 1945 and as a young boy had been taken to the Northern Territory by his parents , his father in the Department of Civil Aviation, where they lived out of Alice Springs , later in Darwin.
He and his brother had a close relationship with Aborigines - ran about barefoooted with them in the Centre , involved in their games, food , hunting , encountering ones who came in from way out who could not speak English.
On his l8th birthday, Jenkin joined the Army , serving with 3RAR and then 4RAR. He rook part in the Indonesian Confrontation with Malaysia which took him to Singapore, Kuching, Borneo and Sarawak.
He was mentioned in dispatches in the Vietnam War . His taped interview provides detailed information about the conflicts, especially the Vietnam War . His military service included a posting to the Royal Military College, Duntroon, for three years.
He retired to Townsville , died 2023 .
In following up the Jenkin surname a range of information surfaced about a number of men with that name , or Jenkins, and others, who had performed military service , many killed.
The Soldiers of Anzac Hill , Maldon ,Victoria .
The above online sight includes the following emotional explanatory introduction about those included in the WWl memorial : Compiling these notes on the first thirty-two soldiers to be commemorated in Anzac Circle, has been a joyless task. Who would believe that from our relatively small community, there would be such a variety of men who served and died in so many different ways?
There were three teachers, a doctor, one prisoner of war who died whilst in German hands, two light horsemen who never took their horses into battle, two soldiers who died after being in the Aegean Sea when their troopship was torpedoed, one who was accidentally shot on board ship en route to Egypt, and many, many other "ordinary" yet extraordinary soldiers who died just doing their best.
By and large, the men from Maldon who died serving their Country in World War One, were mostly young, single and keen to "do their bit". Anzac Hill is a special place where all of them can be remembered and their sacrifice recognised.
One of those listed , with condensed details , was Ernest Jenkin, 23, a labourer, who had survived Gallipoli , suffering shock , killed on the Western Front at the Battle of Framelles , described as the worst 24 hours in Australia's history , the AIF suffering more than 4000 casualties. .
(War. Aborigines. Townsville.)
