Margaret Townsend Jenkins (4 August 1843 – 4 June 1923) was a Welsh-born social reformer and educator in Chile and Canada.

Early life

Margaret Townsend was born in

Neath Neath (; cy, Castell-nedd) is a market town and Community (Wales), community situated in the Neath Port Talbot, Neath Port Talbot County Borough, Wales. The town had a population of 50,658 in 2011. The community of the parish of Neath had a po ...

, Wales, the daughter of Joseph Townsend, a church deacon.Melanie Buddle
"Margaret Townsend"
''Dictionary of Canadian Biography'' (University of Toronto 2005).

Career

Young Miss Townsend began working in the classroom at age 14, as a student teacher in Mumbles near

Swansea Swansea (; cy, Abertawe ) is a coastal city and the second-largest city of Wales. It forms a principal area, officially known as the City and County of Swansea ( cy, links=no, Dinas a Sir Abertawe). The city is the twenty-fifth largest in ...

. She left Great Britain in 1866 to marry her English fiancé, Mr. Fox, in a mining town at Coquimbo, Chile. She began an English-language school in Coquimbo to support herself and her four children after Fox died. As Mrs. Jenkins, she left South America for Canada in 1882. The combined Fox-Jenkins family settled in

Victoria, British Columbia Victoria is the capital city of the Canadian province of British Columbia, on the southern tip of Vancouver Island off Canada's Pacific coast. The city has a population of 91,867, and the Greater Victoria area has a population of 397,237. Th ...

, where Margaret was a "prime mover" in social reform and cultural organizations including the Cymrhoddorian Society, the

Women's Christian Temperance Union The Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) is an international temperance organization, originating among women in the United States Prohibition movement. It was among the first organizations of women devoted to social reform with a program th ...

, and the Women's Canadian Club. She was the appointed temperance and suffrage organizer for

Vancouver Island Vancouver Island is an island in the northeastern Pacific Ocean and part of the Canadian Provinces and territories of Canada, province of British Columbia. The island is in length, in width at its widest point, and in total area, while are o ...

. In 1900 she became president of the Victoria chapter of the WCTU. Margaret Jenkins was elected a trustee on the Victoria School Board in 1897 and 1898, and again for a term spanning 1902 to 1919. Under her guidance Victoria schools added a special day class for learning disabled students, and built a domestic science program. In 1914, a new elementary school was named for her, the first public building in Victoria named for a woman.

Personal life

Margaret Townsend married twice, to Englishman Jonas Fox in 1866 and to Welsh shoemaker David Jenkins in 1879. She was widowed twice, in 1876 and 1904. She had four children in her first marriage, three in her second marriage, and raised nine Jenkins stepchildren as well. Margaret Townsend Jenkins died in 1923, age 79. Her gravesite is in Ross Bay Cemetery. One of her residences in Victoria is a designated heritage building. École Margaret Jenkins School in Victoria is now an English/French dual immersion school.Margaret Jenkins Elementary School
website.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jenkins, Margaret Townsend 1843 births 1923 deaths People from Neath Clubwomen British expatriates in Chile Welsh emigrants to Canada