After 103 years, a Regina family will be able to bring closure to the death of a family member.
Lance Corporal Morgan Jones Jenkins was listed missing in action on August 28, 1918 in France while fighting in the First World War.
But earlier this year, his family received notification from the Department of National Defence that Jenkins remains were discovered after the conclusion of a ten year investigation.
Patty Schaffer, Jenkins niece, says her initial instincts were that the email was a scam. Schaffer decided to follow up with the message since her family had some connections to the Canadian military, and after some investigation, it was determined that indeed the email was authentic.
Jenkins’ family was proud of his work in the military as Schaffer explains. “We’re very proud of him and his other brothers who served in the war, if they had not done that and then we probably not be living the life we’re living today, so I think we really need to be thankful.”
There were four other members of Jenkins family who fought in the first World War according to Schaffer, she said only two members returned home after the war’s conclusion.
Today, members of the Canadian Force will visit Schaffer and her family, including her brother, to deliver an official notice of death for Jenkins. Schaffer says today’s ceremony will not have a somber atmosphere. “This really isn’t a sad time for us, because we didn’t know the man, he was certainly family, and we’re very family orientated.”
She adds that the ceremony will be a chance to educate the younger members about her uncles service for our country. “When we first heard the news that they were coming to give us official notice that they had officially identify him, we just thought oh well, that would be fine, but the more we thought about it, we thought, this is a big deal, this is over 100 years, and they’ve been trying to find him or identify him all this time and particularly the last ten years. ”
The body of Jenkins will remain in it’s current spot in France in a commonwealth grave, but now the tombstone of his grave will soon change to show his name and an inscription that will be written by the family at a later date.
Morgan Jones Jenkins was originally from Wales, but would later immigrate to Manitoba. While attending agricultural in Manitoba, he was the President of the agricultural debating society which has the distinction of defeating the Harvard University debate team in a competition.
