ABSTRACT
Although an armistice brought the war to an end on the 11th of November 1918, the khaki behemoth could not be dismantled at a stroke and even at the beginning of 1920 some thousands of conscripts remained in service.1 In contrast, Jenks was among the first to be ‘demobbed’ and was able to start the new term at Harper Adams in January 1919, beginning the remaining year and a half of the two-year course he had interrupted in 1917.2 Agricultural workers were marked by the authorities for early demobilisation, so Jenks’ plans to train in that field may explain his early release.3 Similarly, at the end of the war, there were already thousands of soldiers working on the land and urgent orders for men to be released for the harvest were also issued, a policy to which Jenks later referred.4
