Richard Parker Pinsent – The Pinsent Family

Vital Statistics

Young man in a suit. — RIchard Parker Pinsent attending Balliol College.

Richard Parker Pinsent: 1894 – 1915 GRO0740

Family Branch: Devonport
PinsentID: GRO0740

References

Click here to view close family members.

Richard Parker Pinsent, was the younger son of Hume Chancellor Pinsent by his wife Ellen Frances Pinsent (née Parker). He was born in Birmingham and educated a “St. Andrew’s School” in Eastbourne, and at “Marlborough College” a well-known English “Public” (private) school in Wiltshire. He was a member of the school’s Officers Training Corp. Richard Parker received an exhibition (scholarship) to study chemistry at “Balliol College” in (Oxford Chronicle & Reading Gazette: Friday 29th October 1915) and he had been at Oxford for almost a year when the “First World War” broke out. He joined the “Royal Warwickshire Regiment” as a “Second Lieutenant” and was a member of the “10^th (Service) Battalion” by September 1914 (Civil and Military Gazette (Lahore): Wednesday 21^st October 1914): He was with the regiment when it went to France in July 1915 (London Times: 14^th October 1915) and died in the trenches at Richebourg-L’Avoue, in the Pas-de-Calais a few months later. He was 21 years old. He was buried at “Le Touret Military Cemetery”.

Richard or “Dick” as he was known, was a friend of the poet Robert Nichols who in his “Plaint of Friendship by Death Broken (R.P., Loos, 1915)” wrote this of him: “His eyes were dark and sad, yet never sad; in them moved sombre figures sable-clad; they were the deepest eyes man ever had, they were my solemn joy – now my despair. His face was straight, his mouth was wide yet trim; his hair was tangled black, and through its dim softness his perplexed hand would writhe and swim – hands that were small on arms strong knit yet spare. His voice was low and clear ……….” The poem is referred to in a discussion of Robert Nichols poetry published in the Boston Evening Transcript on 20th April 1915.

Young man in a military uniform. — Richard Parker Pinsent.

Richard’s father, Hume Chancellor, received letters of administration for his son’s estate, which was valued at £190 5s 11d. He placed a plaque in Wootton Church and he endowed a prize for Chemistry at “Marlborough College” in Richard’s name. After the war, the War Office sent Richard’s campaign medals (“Victory” and “British Medals” and “Star”) to his mother, Ellen Frances Pinsent, at “#8 Chelsea Court, London, S.W.3” (WWIMedalRollIndexCards: 1914-1920) Ancestry.com). They can not have been much consolation.

Family Tree

GRANDPARENTS

Grandfather: Richard Steele Pinsent: 1820 – 1864
Grandmother: Catherine Agnes Ross: 1830 – 1906

PARENTS

Father: Hume Chancellor Pinsent: 1857 – 1920
Mother: Ellen Frances Parker: 1866 – 1949

FATHER’S SIBLINGS (AUNTS, UNCLES)

Adolphus Ross Pinsent: 1851 – 1929
Richard Alfred Pinsent: 1852 – 1948
Edith Mary Pinsent: 1853 – xxxx

MALE SIBLINGS (BROTHERS)

David Hume Pinsent: 1891 – 1918

Please use the above links to explore this branch of the family tree. The default “Next” and “Previous” links below may lead to other unrelated branches.