Chap­ter II — Mem­oir of Fleem­ing Jenkin begins by trac­ing the ori­gins of Fleem­ing Jenkin’s char­ac­ter through a child­hood marked by insta­bil­i­ty, reflec­tion, and nur­tur­ing influ­ences. Born in 1833 in a mod­est coast­guard sta­tion in Kent, his ear­ly years were shaped by fre­quent moves and sep­a­ra­tions due to his par­ents’ oblig­a­tions. These tran­si­tions placed him under the care of rel­a­tives, expos­ing him to con­trast­ing environments—his grand­moth­er’s hard­ship left a somber mark, while his Aunt Anna’s gen­tle spir­it gave him warmth and sta­bil­i­ty. His ear­ly expo­sure to both emo­tion­al hard­ship and com­pas­sion instilled in him a sen­si­tiv­i­ty that would lat­er inform his val­ues and human­is­tic approach to engi­neer­ing and edu­ca­tion. Even in his youth, Fleem­ing demon­strat­ed a thirst for learn­ing and a resilience of char­ac­ter, absorb­ing lessons from every per­son and place he encoun­tered. His curios­i­ty found out­lets in both aca­d­e­mics and prac­ti­cal pur­suits, estab­lish­ing a foun­da­tion for the mul­ti­fac­eted man he would become.

As he grew, Fleeming’s edu­ca­tion unfold­ed across mul­ti­ple cul­tur­al land­scapes, each enrich­ing his per­spec­tive. His time in Edin­burgh intro­duced him to rig­or­ous aca­d­e­mics and placed him among peers like Tait and Clerk Maxwell, where he began to dis­tin­guish him­self in sci­ence and math­e­mat­ics. Yet it wasn’t all class­room work—his par­tic­i­pa­tion in Scot­tish cus­toms and his prowess in games revealed a spir­it­ed, well-round­ed young man. These were not idle years but the incu­ba­tors of a sharp, agile mind always ask­ing ques­tions and seek­ing con­nec­tions between knowl­edge and life. Mov­ing with his fam­i­ly to Frank­fort and lat­er to Paris, he encoun­tered rev­o­lu­tion­ary fer­vor up close, and these vivid moments shaped his emerg­ing polit­i­cal beliefs. The unrest in Europe in 1848 was more than back­ground noise; it was a live expe­ri­ence that stirred his empa­thy and shaped his under­stand­ing of jus­tice, lib­er­ty, and civic respon­si­bil­i­ty.

Italy became the cru­cible where Jenkin’s intel­lect and ideals fused into some­thing endur­ing. As his fam­i­ly sought refuge in Genoa, the city’s ener­gy, cul­ture, and polit­i­cal ten­sion left a last­ing impres­sion on him. His enroll­ment as the first Protes­tant stu­dent in the Genoa Uni­ver­si­ty high­light­ed both his courage and the pro­gres­sive val­ues instilled in him by his moth­er. Mrs. Jenkin, a woman of vivid char­ac­ter and rad­i­cal con­vic­tions, played a cru­cial role in shap­ing Fleeming’s polit­i­cal thought, aes­thet­ic sense, and per­son­al ethics. She encour­aged debate, nur­tured his tal­ents, and nev­er shied away from guid­ing him through moral com­plex­i­ty. These years in Genoa were formative—not only aca­d­e­m­i­cal­ly, but also as a moment where he observed real soci­etal upheaval and formed a last­ing admi­ra­tion for the Ital­ian nation­al cause. His sup­port for Ital­ian uni­fi­ca­tion remained a thread through­out his life, often inter­twined with his tech­ni­cal and lit­er­ary endeav­ors.

The edu­ca­tion Fleem­ing received in Italy extend­ed far beyond text­books. It was in these years that he devel­oped an endur­ing love for the arts, sharp­ened his rea­son­ing skills, and under­stood the role of sci­ence and engi­neer­ing in serv­ing pub­lic good. Whether in sci­en­tif­ic stud­ies, music appre­ci­a­tion, or polit­i­cal dis­course, he applied the same inten­si­ty and focus. The volatile atmos­phere of rev­o­lu­tion­ary Italy and the pas­sion­ate, ide­al­is­tic indi­vid­u­als he encoun­tered fueled his con­vic­tion that tech­nol­o­gy must serve human­i­ty, not mere­ly indus­try. These ideas would lat­er define his stance on pub­lic ser­vice, edu­ca­tion reform, and the eth­i­cal oblig­a­tions of engi­neers. Through adver­si­ty, he dis­cov­ered not just resilience, but respon­si­bil­i­ty. His com­mit­ment to fair­ness, truth, and innovation—values echoed through­out his pro­fes­sion­al life—can be traced to these for­ma­tive encoun­ters.

This chap­ter is ulti­mate­ly about shap­ing a man of pur­pose. Fleem­ing Jenkin’s ear­ly jour­ney reveals how a boy, nur­tured by intel­li­gent par­ent­ing, test­ed by dis­lo­ca­tion, and inspired by cul­tur­al rich­ness, evolved into a thinker whose work would blend sci­ence with con­science. The events that formed him were com­plex, but they were nev­er random—they built a world­view root­ed in com­pas­sion, rig­or, and pro­gres­sive ideals. Each city and cri­sis added a lay­er, and each les­son helped craft a life of integri­ty. These for­ma­tive years show that his lat­er accom­plish­ments were not iso­lat­ed acts of bril­liance, but the nat­ur­al out­come of a life lived in pur­suit of under­stand­ing, jus­tice, and mean­ing­ful con­tri­bu­tion.