Vital Statistics
John Arthur Pinsent: 1875 – 1942 GRO0516 (Shoe finisher, Leicester)
Ada Soloman: 1876 – 1949
Married: Leicester, Leicestershire: 1895
Children by Ada Soloman:
Joseph Pinsent: 1895 – 1896
Frank Pinsent: 1896 – 1899
Samuel Thomas Pinsent: 1897 – 1898
Thomas Johnson Pinsent: 1905 – 1906
Family Branch: Tiverton
PinsentID: GRO0516
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John Arthur was the eldest son of Thomas Johnson Pinsent and Sarah Ann (née Ellis). He was born in Leicester in 1875 and was seven years old when his mother died. His father married Caroline Chaplin (née Deakin) and John Arthur and his siblings were most likely brought up alongside her son, Robert E. (Chaplin) “Pinsent”. John Arthur was a troubled boy. He stole a pair of boots (valued at 3s 6d) from a pawnbroker in 1885 and tried to pawn them to another the same day. The latter turned him in. When apprehended, John Arthur said: “I was told to take them.” True or not, he was sentenced to receive six strokes from a birch rod and his father was told to keep an eye on him (Leicester Chronicle: Saturday 28th November 1885).
John Arthur Pinsent ran away from home in 1889 and was one of five “Bad Boys” charged with sleeping in a barn on Meadow Road, in Derby. The boys frequented the Recreational Ground – playing cards and throwing stones. In court, their defense was that they came from wretched homes and for some of them their parents were in jail (Long Eaton Advertiser: Saturday 27th July 1889). The Magistrates decided to send John Arthur to an “industrial school” until he was sixteen years old, which probably explains why he was away from home when the census takers called on his father in 1891 (Derby Mercury: Wednesday 31st July 1889). After serving his term, John Arthur returned to Leicester and settled down as a “shoe machine operator;” however, he was up before the Leicester magistrates a few years later and fined 5s for gaming on Brandon Street (Leicester Chronicle: Saturday 27th July 1895). This was a matter of weeks before he married Ada Solomon; the daughter of a “coachbuilder”.
John Arthur and Ada had four sons (Joseph, Frank, Samuel Thomas and Thomas Johnson Pinsent); however none of them survived for more that a year of so. Frank Pinsent died by accident from shock caused by scalding. Apparently he had been left in the care of his great-grandmother, Elizabeth Pinsent (née Johnson) and had fallen backwards into a pot of hot water while she was out of the room (Leicester Chronicle: Saturday 18th November 1899). The 1911 Census shows that John Arthur and Ada were both active in the shoe trade, and that they had adopted a son, Joseph Harry Robertson. The family lived on the Loughborough Road.
John Arthur was over forty years old when he, perhaps surprisingly, signed up for active service in December 1915. On enlistment, he gave his wife’s name as Ada Pinsent and his home address as 24 Shirley Street. He was said to be 5 feet 3.5 inches tall and 106 lbs in weighed. He had a fair complexion and brown hair and eyes. As for distinguishing features, he had a scar on his left thumb from an old injury. He was a shoemaker, after all! And he had the letter “J” tattooed on his right forearm. Private John Arthur Pinsent [Regimental Number #35715] was assigned to the “Royal Veterinary Corp” and placed on reserve as a horse-keeper at Aldershot Barracks in May 1918. Like so many others, he was discharged back into civilian life in March 1919 (British Army WWI Service Records: 1914-1920).
After the war, John Arthur rejoined Ada in Shirley Road and re-entered the shoe trade. The Electoral Rolls show that John Arthur and Ada lived there throughout the 1920s and 1930s. When the census takers came by in 1921, John was was an “edge setter in a boot and shoe works” employed by “Joe Green and Sons Limited, Boot Manufacturer” of Ash Street. Ada was also working outside of the house; she was a “machinist in a boot and shoe works” employed by “Woollerton Griffen and Co., Boot and Shoe Manufacturers” of Willow Street. Their nineteen years old adopted son, Joseph Harry Robertson, was also in the shoe trade. He was a “laster” employed by “Wilson” on Clyde Street. John and Ada and were still living on Shirley Road when the War-time Register was compiled in 1939. They had both long since retired. John Arthur died in Leicester in 1942 and Ada succumbed in 1949. They had no surviving children.
Family Tree
GRANDPARENTS
Grandfather: John Pinsent: 1836 – 1899
Grandmother: Elizabeth Johnson: 1837 – 1909
PARENTS
Father: Thomas Johnson Pinsent: 1856 – 1925
Mother: Sarah Ann Ellis: 1858 – 1882
FATHER’S SIBLINGS (AUNTS, UNCLES)
Sarah Jane Pinsent: 1855 – 1855
John Henry Pinsent: 1858 – 1861
George Pinsent: 1861 – 1932
Eliza Pinsent: 1863 – xxxx
Louisa Pinsent: 1865 – 1945
Ada Pinsent: 1867 – xxxx
John Arthur Pinsent: 1869 – 1930
Henry Pinsent: 1871 – 1939
William Horace Pinsent: 1874 – 1876
Horace Pinsent: 1879 – 1949
MALE SIBLINGS (BROTHERS)
John Arthur Pinsent: 1875 – 1942 ✔️
Harry Pinsent: 1877 – 1905
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