Born in to a mine owning family, Hamilton Jenkin was educated at Sherborne School, Clifton College and University College, Oxford, becoming a close friend of C.S. Lewis.

His first book, ‘The Cornish Miner’, was published in 1927 and his other works included ‘Cornish Seafarers’ (1932); ‘Cornwall and the Cornish’ (1933); ‘Cornish Homes and Customs’ (1934) and ‘The Story of Cornwall’ (1944).  He continued his research and writings notably, ‘Cornwall and its People’ (1945) and ‘News from Cornwall’ (1951). 

In the 1960s, however he consolidated his reputation as Cornwall’s foremost historian with his magisterial, 16-volume series, ‘Mines and Miners of Cornwall’. 

A founding bard of the Gorseth Kernow (1928) with the bardic name ‘Lef Stenoryon’ (‘Voice of the Tinners’), he persuaded the Cornwall County Council to establish the Cornwall Record Office and served as President of the Royal Institution of Cornwall (February 5^th).