Vital Statistics
Philip James Noel Pinsent: 1921 – 2007 GRO0720 (Lecturer in Veterinary Science, Liverpool, Lancashire)
Constance Evadne Pierce: 1928 – 2020
Married: 1949: Liverpool, Lancashire
Children by Constance Evadne Pierce:
Daughter (GRO0371)
Son (GRO0156)
Son (GRO0519)
Daughter (GRO0121)
Family Branch: Tiverton
PinsentID: GRO0720
References
Philip James Noel (“Jim Pinsent”) was the eldest son of Arthur Pinsent by his wife Hilda Mabel (née West). He was born in Leicester in 1921 but grew in Aberystwyth, in Wales, with a younger brother (Brian Roy West Pinsent). His father was a lecturer in Education at the “University College” in Aberystwyth.
Both of Arthur’s sons were (perhaps predictably) good at English. However, English may have been a second language for many young Welsh boys of their age. The elementary school children in and around Aberystwyth were taken to the Cinema in 1931 and they were asked to write essays on the films they saw. The best received book prizes. It was a good way of teaching them the language (Welsh Gazette: Thursday 25th 1931). Needless to say, “Jimmie Pinsent” of Alexander Road (boys) School, did well.
James moved to Ardwyn School and took his love of English with him. The school held an Eisteddfod at St. David’s Parish Hall in Aberystwyth each St. David’s day in the 1920s and 1930s, probably into the 1940s if not beyond. The school houses competed for a challenge cup and certificates and/or prizes were awarded for music, poetry and recitation and Arthur had been called upon to adjudicate the more literary English language items in the 1920s; however, he seems to have stopped (presumably for conflict of interest reasons!) when his sons joined the school (Welsh Gazette: Thursday 8th March 1928 etc.).
James came first in the Eisteddfod “junior” competition with an English essay in 1933 (Welsh Gazette: Thursday 2nd March 1933). He came second the following year and won again in 1935. He also did well in his Central Welsh Board examinations too; receiving certificates in English, History, Latin, French (oral proficiency), Arithmetic (with credit) and biology (Welsh Gazette: Thursday 5th September 1935). Later, he won a special prize for Latin (Welsh Gazette: Thursday 20th February 1936).
Philip James Noel (or “Jim” as he was known) was joined at Ardwyn School by his younger brother Brian Roy West (or “Roy” as he was known), and he too competed in the Eisteddfod competitions. James received one of the “Head Master’s Service and Leadership” prizes at Ardwyn in 1939 (Welsh Gazette: Thursday 23rd February 1939) – perhaps this was in recognition of his contribution to the school’s one act play “The House with the Twisty Windows” the previous year (Welsh Gazette: Thursday 22nd December 1938). He received his High School Examination certificate in August 1939 (Welsh Gazette: Thursday 31st August 1939) and started a course in “Veterinary Studies” at “Liverpool University.” Unfortunately, the war intervened and James spent the next six years serving in the “Horse Transportation Section” of the “Royal Army Service Corps.” (R.A.S.C).
James had played cricked for the Aberystwyth Y.M.C.A. over the summer of 1939 (Welsh Gazette: Thursday 17th August 1939) and he joined Liverpool University’s cricket team shortly after going up to university. He was good, and he was picked for a “Universities Eleven” to play against Cambridge University, at Cambridge, in May 1940 (Daily Mail: Tuesday 21st May 1940). Presumably he was in uniform by then and given leave to do so. Apparently, he was once offered the opportunity to keep-wicket for “Warwickshire County Cricket Club” (Veterinary Record: May 12th 2007); however, his career came first. Interestingly, his sons also excelled at cricket.
Jim Pinsent resumed his veterinary studies after the war and graduated from Liverpool University in 1950 (Welsh Gazette: Thursday 27th July 1950). He worked on farms on the Welsh borders for a couple of years and then became a “Lecturer in Farm Practice” in the “Large Animal Hospital” at Liverpool. While there, he was instrumental in establishing the University’s “Veterinary Field Station” at Leahurst (University of Liverpool: Insight: Autumn 2007). In 1961 he returned to the care of large animals in the field in Hampshire, but after a few years he went back to teaching. He joined the “University of Bristol Veterinary School” in Langford as clinician in charge of the “Farm Animal Practice Unit” and at the “Large Animal Medical Hospital”.
In 1969, Jim looked into the cause of a “mystery illness” that was killing horses around the country, but was unable to pinpoint the cause, although he noted a weak correlation with the use of anti-flu serum (Bristol Evening Post: Tuesday 17th February 1970). Nevertheless, he was a gifted diagnostician and helped set up the medical hospital’s school’s practice teaching unit. Jim was an excellent researcher and teacher and he was highly regarded by his students (Veterinary Record: Volume 160: April 28th 2007, May 12th 2007). He remained a Senior Lecturer at the Langford field station until he retired in 1986. Not that he actually fully retired: he seems to have helped out at a Veterinary Clinic on the High Street, in Yatton – he stood in for the principal Veterinary Surgeon when he was on vacation (Clevedon Mercury: Thursday 9th June 1988).
Jim became a “Fellow in the Royal College of Veterinary Science” (F.R.C.V.S.) in 1966. He was awarded the “Hall of Barry” prize for clinical studies in farm animals in 1986 (http://inpractice.bmj.com).
Jim was a prolific research scientist who authored and co-authored countless technical professional papers in the Journal of Veterinary Science and other journals between the 1960s and 1990s. He specialized in the care of large animals – particularly cattle and horses and he gave a talk on allergies to forceps (experienced by Guernsey cows) at a meeting of the “Annual Congress of the British Veterinary Association” in October 1962 (Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News: Wednesday 109th October 1962). This was just one of numerous technical professional papers he wrote and/or presented.
While “Senior Lecturer in Veterinary Medicine at Bristol University”, Jim attended a symposium on animal welfare organized by the “British Veterinary Association of Animal Welfare Trust” and made a passionate appeal against the then popular “cult of the pony” in Britain. He argued that children knew little about looking after them and their mothers knew less, and all too often ponies suffered from neglect and malnutrition. It was not uncommon see several ponies cohabiting on a small piece of muddy, debris and weed and covered pasture. He felt that the problem was rooted in sheer ignorance and he argued that: “a natural catastrophe which removed 90 per cent of Britain’s ponies would be a blessing in disguise” (Western Morning News: Wednesday 21st November 1984). A few weeks later, an R.S.P.C. Inspector spoke out in support of Mr. Pinsent and provided some examples of cases of abuse which – he acknowledged – were not all illegal (Aldershot News: Friday 28th December 1984). Mr. Pinsent’s textbook on the horse: “Outline of Clinical Diagnosis in the Horse” was published in 1990.
Jim married Constance Evadne Pierce, a fellow student at Liverpool University, in 1949 and they had four children, two girls and two boys, in the years that followed. The first three were born in Wirral, in Cheshire while Jim was working in Liverpool and the fourth after the family had relocated to Hampshire.
Jim stayed on in Langford, after he retired. He died in April 2007. I believe his widow died in 2020. The children are, I presume, still alive today.
Family Tree
Grandparents
Grandfather: Adrian Pinsent: 1864 – 1945
Grandmother: Hannah West: 1865 – 1934
Parents
Father: Arthur Pinsent: 1888 – 1978
Mother: Hilda Mabel West: 1895 – 1957
Father’s Siblings (Aunts, Uncles)
Arthur Pinsent: 1888 – 1978
Doris Mabel Pinsent: 1897 – 1898
Harold West Pinsent: 1900 – 1962
MALE SIBLINGS (BROTHERS)
Philip James Noel Pinsent: 1921 – 2007
Brian Roy West Pinsent: 1925 – 1997
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