Casgliadau Arlein

Portrait of Thomas Jenkins. Unsigned and undated. Framed. Both sat for the portrait in February 1879.

Thomas Jenkins was owner of Avon Vale Tinplate Works and Aberavon Tinplate Works, both located at Aberavon, Port Talbot. He was co-founder and managing partner of Avon Vale Works which opened in 1866 until he resigned the partnership in 1874. He was co-founder and managing partner of Aberavon Works which opened in 1875, trading as the Glanwalia Tinplate Company / T.Jenkins & Co. After his death in 1891, his shareholding was inherited by his two daughters, one of whom had married Colonel David Roderick David, one of Thomas Jenkins’ co-partners in the Avon Vale Tinplate Works, and the other of whom had married William M.Jones, a local ship owner whose vessel ‘Sisters’ is recalled by the family as having carried the works’ product for export.