Private Geoffrey Jinks, aged 25, died of illness on 2nd March 1918. He was serving with the 2nd/8th Battalion Worcestershire Regiment, but was transferred to the 288th Area Employment Company, Labour Corps.
Geoffrey Jinks was born in Birmingham in 1892 but grew up in the Cottage Homes, Marston Green, where he was an inmate from at least 1901 when he was eight years old.
We haven’t been able to find out details of his parents, apart from the fact that his mother’s maiden name was recorded in birth indexes as Clarke. We don’t know the circumstances which caused his admission to the Cottage Homes but it’s possible that one or both of his parents had died or were in the workhouse or were too ill to support him.
By 1911, he had left the Cottage Homes, but was recorded as an inmate in the Salvation Army Working Men’s Home, Walmer Buildings, Ryder Street, Birmingham where was working as a Paper Sorter.
He enlisted in the Army at Evesham, Worcestershire, and doesn’t appear to have seen any overseas service before 1916. His sole legatee is listed in the Register of Soldiers’ Effects as Elizabeth E. Dawes.
He is buried at St Sever Cemetery Extension, Rouen. His name isn’t included on Marston Green Cottage Homes War Memorial.
If you have any further information, please let us know.
Tracey
Heritage & Local Studies Librarian
tel.: 0121 704 6977
email: heritage@solihull.gov.uk
Solihull Life 
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