 He was a lifelong Humanist, and President of the North East Humanists group.After becoming one of the first students in the country to read for a degree in biochemistry, Jenkins gained a PhD at Cambridge, and by the early 1940s was teaching physiology to doctors at St. Bartholomew's Hospital.In 1946 Jenkins came to Newcastle upon Tyne and was for ten years Nuffield Lecturer in Physiology to dental students at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, a role which he pioneered.