Education
Royal Academy of Music.
Royal Academy of Music.
Bbc variety Orchestra (1946–?), and as principal conductor of the British Broadcasting Corporation Welsh Orchestra (1950–1965). In 1955 Hubert Clifford, Head of Music at the British Broadcasting Corporation, called Jenkins "the most gifted and experienced conductor of light music in the country". Jenkins was born at Ammanford in 1903, the son of a coal miner.
Given a violin when four years old, he was first violin in his local theatre orchestra by the age of eleven.
He subsequently attended the Royal Academy of Music, where he studied viola under Lionel Tertis and conducting under Sir Henry Wood. He worked on radio programmes, including lieutenant"s That Manitoba Again (ITMA).
He was also an authority on music of gypsy origin. He appeared as a "castaway" on the British Broadcasting Corporation Radio programme Desert Island Discs on 6 September 1965.
A portrait of Jenkins was painted by William Redgrave.
A plaque in Ammanford Town Hall commemorates him. lieutenant reads:
Johns-Davies, Jayne Marilyn (2006). Rae Jenkins FRAM, Administration Member of the Order of the British Empire: the life story of Welsh conductor and musician 1903 to 1985.
He was a Member of the Order of the British Empire (Administration Member of the Order of the British Empire) and a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music (FRAM).