Vital Statistics
Leslie Grahame Pinsent: 1910 – 1988 GRO0579 (Motor Car Garage Owner, Portsmouth)
1. Edna Kate May Stuttard: 1912 – xxxx
Married: 1934: Portsmouth, Hampshire
2. Elsa Laura Christine Nellthorp: 1908 – 1988
Married: 1948: Portsmouth, Hampshire
Family Branch: Devonport
PinsentID: GRO0579
References
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Leslie Grahame Pinsent was the only son of John Douglas Pinsent by his wife Mary Elizabeth (née Watts). He was born in Exeter in 1910 but moved to Southsea, near Portsmouth in Hampshire, with his parents in around 1916. He grew up there. As a young man, he played “football” (probably soccer but possibly rugby!) for the “South Hants Nomads” (Portsmouth Evening News: Friday 21st February 1930). Leslie married Edna Kate May Stuttard in 1934. She was the daughter of a “shipwright” who worked in the Portsmouth “Dockyard”. At the time of his marriage, he was described as being a “garage proprietor”. The couple lived on Torrington Road, in Portsmouth and Edna was still living there when the war-time “Register” was taken in 1939. She was a “clerk for a draper” at the time but she later joined the “Civil Service” as a “clerk” in the “National Insurance Office”. Leslie, meanwhile, joined the “Royal Air Force” and served as a “Leading Aircraftsman”.
Leslie and Edna lived near to Edna’s mother’s house in Gosport at the entrance to Portsmouth Harbour. The area took quite a beating during the war and Leslie’s mother-in-law was bombed out of her house. She moved in with Edna and her husband but found the stress of it all unbearable. Sadly, she committed suicide in June 1941 (Portsmouth Evening News: Tuesday 10th June 1941). After the war, Leslie returned to his previous profession as a “motor (car) dealer”. However, he may have found it difficult make a go of it in a war-ravaged country. Certainly, he had become a “tobacconist” by 1948. By then, his marriage to Edna had broken down and they had divorced. There were no children. Leslie remarried in 1948 and Edna remarried the following year.
Leslie Grahame married a widow, Elsa Laura Christine Spicer, (née Nellthorpe) who brought at least one young daughter into the marriage. She was later to marry the local curate and emigrate to New Zealand. The family lived on Francis Avenue in Southsea in 1949. The “tobacconist’s” was nearby, on Albert Road. Leslie and Elsa had moved to Locksway Road in Southsea by 1951, and they were still there in 1983 (Portsmouth Telephone Directory). Elsa had been living there in 1939 (1939 Register), so it may have been her family home.
There were several other Pinsent families in the Southsea and Portsmouth area in the 1950s, but it seems likely that Leslie Grahame was the G. Pinsent who became an active member of the “Southsea Waverley Bowling Club” (Portsmouth Evening News: Thursday 19th November 1953). He, himself, was runner up in the “Waverley Open Tourney” when it was held at Southsea Waverley in June 1957 (Portsmouth Evening News: Monday 12th June 1957) and a member of the club team when it won the “Hampshire County Club Championship” later that same year (Portsmouth Evening News: Monday 5th August 1957). Elsewhere, the same individual seems to have been described as being L. Pinsent.
The Mrs. E. Pinsent, who captained the women in the “Falcon Tennis Club” and won both the Section “B” and “C” Shields in the inter-club knockout competitions in 1952 (Portsmouth Evening News: Friday 26th September 1952), was probably his wife, Elsa. If so, they were both active in their respective sports into the early 1950s. Elsa may also have played bridge in her spare time as a team including “Mrs. Pinsent” won a bridge drive sponsored by the local “Ladies Life-boat Guild” in 1958 (Portsmouth Evening News: Monday 3rd February 1958).
Elsa died in August 1988 and Leslie died in December a few months later. They had no children that I am aware of.
Family Tree
Grandparents
Grandfather: William Swain Pinsent: 1843 – 1920
Grandmother: Harriet Eliza Cookson: 1846 – 1892
Parents
Father: John Douglas Pinsent: 1872 – 1936
Mother: Mary Elizabeth Watts: 1886 – 1942
Father’s Siblings (Aunts, Uncles)
Ethel Mary Philomena Pinsent: 1869 – xxxx
Kathleen Blanche Pinsent: 1871 – 1949
John Douglas Pinsent: 1872 – 1936 ✔️
William Henry Pinsent: 1874 – 1949
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