Vital Statistics
Richard Alan Pinsent: 1931 – 2019 GRO0737 (Farmer and General Manager in New South Wales, Australia)
Wife (GRO1376)
Married: 1954: Sherbourne, Dorset
Children by Wife (GRO1376):
Daughter (GRO0172)
Daughter (GRO1130)
Family Branch: Devonport
PinsentID: GRO0737
Richard Alan Pinsent was the younger son of John Ryland Pinsent by his wife, Kathleen May (née Boyce). His father was a retired army officer who had settled at “Prior’s Barton” in Winchester and was, at that time, an “Assistant Master” at his erstwhile “public” (i.e. private) school of “Winchester College”. His father later went into civic politics and was elected to the city council in 1934. John Ryland became an alderman and served as Mayor during the abdication crisis in 1937. He rejoined the army in 1939.
Richard Alan Pinsent grew up at “Prior’s Barton” and attended his father’s old school of “Winchester College” before studying agriculture at the “Royal Agricultural College” in Cirencester. On leaving, he went out to Nassau in the Bahamas on the “Pacific Steam Navigation Co.” ship “Reina Del Pacifico” in September 1953 and served as Aide-de-Camp to the Governor. According to an on-line source (prabook.com) he also managed a Gallery in Montego Bay in Jamaica as his first step in a career in real estate management.
Richard returned to England and married Wife (GRO1376) in Dorset in May 1954. She had Australian connections and the event caught the attention of the Adelaide Advertiser (Tuesday 25th May 1954). After spending their honeymoon in France and Switzerland, the happy couple headed back to the West Indies on the “Reina Del Pacifico” in June 1954. Nevertheless, they were back in England for Richard’s father’s Memorial Service when it was held at “Winchester College” in October 1957 (The Times: 10th October 1957). The service brought a large number Sir Richard Alfred Pinsent’s family together.
The couple farmed at Tarrant Gunville, near Blandford Forum in Dorset, from 1958 to 1961 (British Telephone Books: 1880-1894) and then went out to Australia with their daughter on the “P. & O.” ship “S.S. Canberra” in October 1961. They gave their Australian contact as Mr. C. Graham, who lived in Victor Harbour, South Australia, so they were probably visiting family. Another ship’s manifest tells use that they then sailed on to New Zealand on the “Orient Lines of Australia” ship “S.S. Iberia” in February 1962. That manifest suggests that they were immigrants who were intent on farming; however, that seems unlikely. They were probably passing through on the way back to the West Indies.
Richard seems to have managed several companies in Jamaica in the 1960s (parabook.com) but the family eventually opted to settle in Australia. It moved to Thora in New South Wales, in 1971, and Richard went into real estate there. The couple also established the firm of “Realities Ltd.” – which marketed cold cast bronze figures that Wife (GRO1376) made. She was very good at it and she developed a considerable reputation for sculpting and casting ornamental bronze horses (gallery.horsedeals.com.au). Richard and Wife (GRO1376) retired from the business and sold it to a couple of her employees in around 2000. The business was still going in 2007 and her moulds are, I gather. still in use. In an interview, the new owner explained that “the process is labour intensive and involves a rubber mould being made of the original. This is done by applying many cigarette-paper thin layers of rubber combined with a fixer over a period of a week.”
Richard and Wife (GRO1376) were living at Barton Hall in Thora (a rural part of New South Wales) in the early 2000s.
Richard died in 2019. I am not sure about Wife (GRO1376).
Family Tree
GRANDPARENTS
Grandfather: Richard Alfred Pinsent: 1852 – 1948
Grandmother: Laura Proctor Ryland: 1855 – 1931
PARENTS
Father: John Ryland Pinsent: 1888 – 1957
Mother: Kathleen May Boyce: 1894 – 1969
FATHER’S SIBLINGS (AUNTS, UNCLES)
Roy Pinsent: 1883 – 1978
Clive Pinsent: 1886 – 1948
Laurence Alfred Pinsent: 1894 – 1915
Philip Ryland Pinsent: 1897 – 1916
MALE SIBLINGS (BROTHERS)
John Laurence Pinsent: 1916 – 2014
Richard Alan Pinsent: 1931 – xxxx
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