Henry Jenner was born at St. Columb on August 8th 1848. He was the son of Henry Lascelles Jenner, who one of two curates to the Rector of St Columb Major.

In 1869 Henry became a clerk in the Probate Division of the High Court and two years later was nominated by the Primate at Canterbury for a post in the Department of Ancient Manuscripts in the British Museum, his father then being the Rector of Wingham, a small village near Canterbury.

In 1874 Henry Jenner began his interest in Celtic languages and in 1875 he read a paper to the Philological Society in London, his subject being the Manx Language. The following year he read another paper on the subject of the Cornish Language at Mount's Bay. In I877 he discovered, whilst working in the British Museum, forty two lines of a medieval play written in Cornish around the year 1450.

In 1903 he was made Bard of the Breton Gorsedd and he founded the first Cornish language society, "Cowethas Kelto-Kemuak". The following year he took Cornwall's application for membership of the Celtic Congress, then meeting in Caernarvon.

Shortly afterwards he published his Handbook of the Cornish Language and the Cornish Revival was born.

In 1909 he and his wife Kitty retired to Hayle, his wife's home town and in January 1912 he was elected as the Librarian of the Morrab Library, a post he held until 1927. He died on 8 May, 1934. Before he died, he said: “The whole object of my life has been to inculcate into Cornish people a sense of their Cornishness."

Jenner's reputation as a Cornish and Celtic scholar was unrivalled and the contribution he made to the Cornish language was unparalleled

External links

• Henry Jenner (Gwas Myghal): http://www.gorsethkernow.org.uk/english/gallery/grandbards/egwasmyg.htm

• Henry and Katharine Jenner, A Celebration of Cornwall’s Culture, Language and Identity: http://www.francisboutle.demon.co.uk/booklist/jenner/jenner.htm

• What is the Cornish Language? :

http://www.cornish-language.org/english/faq.asp