J57705 Boy 2nd Class Alec Clemence Herbert Jenner, HMS Ganges

Alec Clemence Herbert Jenner was born at Framfield, Sussex on 3rd March 1901, his birth registered in the June quarter of that year at Uckfield.  He appears on the 1901 census of England and Wales living at Black Boys, Framfield with his family.  The household comprised David Foster Jenner (head, aged 25, working as an agricultural labourer), his wife Frances Jenner (aged 21) and their two children: David William Christopher Jenner (aged one) and Alec (aged one month).  Alec is recorded as “Alex” on the census return. 

He enlisted in the Royal Navy at Portsmouth on 8th August 1916 aged 15 years and five months.  He was five feet, two inches tall, had light brown hair, brown eyes and a fair complexion.  It was noted that he had a birthmark on the outside of his left upper arm, a scar on the back of his right hand and a small scar on the back of his left hand (in the middle).  He gave his occupation as farm labourer, was given the number J57705  the rating of boy 2nd class and sent to the boys’ training establishment, HMS Ganges. 

He wasn’t there long however before he was invalided out of the Navy (14th February 1917) and thus, at the grand old age of fifteen, Alec Jenner’s war duty for his King and Country effectively ended. 

Alec Jenner’s brother Christopher also served in the Royal Navy during the First World War.