Vital Statistics
Thomas Pinsent: 1885 – 1976 GRO0832 (Soldier, Carpenter and Joiner, in Nottingham, Nottinghamshire)
Lily Gertrude Elliott: 1886 – 1968
Married: 1906: Nottingham, Nottinghamshire
Children by Lily Gertrude Elliott:
Eveline Gertrude Pinsent: 1906 – 1980 (Married Ronald Bruce King, 1933, Nottingham, Nottinghamshire)
Arthur Edward Thomas Pinsent: 1908 – 1964 (Married Dolly Blood, 1937, Nottingham, Nottinghamshire)
Frederick Henry Pinsent: 1910 – 1999 (Married Doris Hutton, 1936, Nottingham, Nottinghamshire)
James William Pinsent: 1912 – 1999 (Married Elizabeth Brunt, 1936, Basford, Nottinghamshire)
Rose Lilian Pinsent: 1916 – 1919
Joyce Lilian Pinsent: 1924 – xxxx
Frank Pinsent: 1926 – 2001 (Married Alice Insley, 1949, Nottingham, Nottinghamshire)
Family Branch: Tiverton
PinsentID: GRO0832
References
Thomas was the only surviving son of James Pinsent by his wife, Emma Elizabeth (née Poxon). He was born in Nottingham and must have been approximately six years old when his parents split up. Thomas went to live with his mother and her parents, while his father took up with Emma (née Hubbard) in around 1892 and started a second family. They seem to have had several children before they married in 1898. In all, James and Emma had five children, who were Thomas’s half-brothers and his half-sister. How much Thomas saw of them is unclear. Thomas’s mother, Emma Elizabeth, died in 1892 and he was then brought-up by his Poxon grandparents. They ran a public house called the “Four Arms” in Plumtree Square in Nottingham.
Thomas was a “shoe hand” when he left school but was a “joiner” when he married Lily Gertrude Elliott, in 1906. Sixty years later, the Nottingham Evening Post (Wednesday 13th April 1966) printed their photograph with some of Thomas’s recollections. Evidently, he had been working in Radford on the day he married and he had to hurry to St. Ann’s Church in Nottingham for the wedding on foot. He had continued to work as a “joiner” and the newspaper article says had an active interest in the “Amalgamated Society of Woodworkers, which he joined after service in the First World War. For many years he worked in the shop-fitting department at Boots. Mr. and Mrs. Pinsent have five of their seven children still living, 15 grandchildren and ten great-great-grandchildren.”
The couple had their seven children (four boys and three girls) over a period of twenty years. The three eldest, Eveline Gertrude, Arthur Edward Thomas and Frederick Henry were born before the 1910 Census – which shows that Thomas was a “carpenter” and “lace machine maker,” and that the family lived on Martin Street in Nottingham. Their third son, James William Pinsent, was born in 1912 and the fourth, Frank, arrived after the War, in 1926.
Thomas and Lily were living on Rose Street, in Nottingham, in December 1915 when Thomas joined the army. He signed on to serve for the duration of the war. His “Attestation” and other Army Papers show that he was 5 feet and 0 inches tall, and that he had a scar beside his right eye. Thomas was assigned to the “Labour Corps” (Regimental Number #194466) where he saw service in England with the 347 (HS) Works Company based in West Hartlepool, in Durham. He appears to have had relatively short-term postings to the “Royal Engineers”, “West Yorkshire Regiment”, “Durham Light Infantry” and other units. Presumably, he was sent where he was needed. There were advantages in being based close to home! His daughter, Rose Lillian Pinsent was born and baptized in Nottingham in December 1916 while he was a Private (“joiner”) in the “Durham Light Infantry”. In November 1917, The “Royal Engineers” had the decency to certify him as a “Proficient Joiner,” which must have helped after the war. Thomas was demobilized on 14th November 1919. Unfortunately, his daughter Rose had died a few months earlier. She was a victim of the flu epidemic that ravaged Europe in 1919.
Thomas returned to Nottingham after the war, and became a “house builder” and “joiner.” His family were still living on Rose Street, and his two youngest children, Joyce Lillian Pinsent and Frank Pinsent were born there. Thomas was working for “J. W. Stamp & Co., Builders of Union Road in Nottingham” on a housing project at Thorking when the census takers came visiting in 1921. His wife, was, of course, employed with household duties and his three sons were at school.
His eldest child, his daughter, Evelyn had left school by then and was creating lace patterns for “T. I. Birkin, Lace Manufacturers, of Broadway Nottingham.” She later became a “dressmaker” and married Ronald Bruce King, a “dispatch clerk” at a brewery, in Nottingham in 1933 (Nottingham Evening Post: Saturday 4th March 1933). Her sister, Joyce Lillian Pinsent was to become a “tobacco machinist.” She married Jack Ward, an “electrician”, in Nottingham in 1947. Thomas and Lily Gertrude’s four boys, Arthur Edward Thomas, Frederick Henry, James William and Frank Pinsent also married. Their lives are discussed elsewhere.
Thomas and Lily Gertrude were living with their still school-age son, Frank, on Oxclose Lane in Nottingham when the war-time register was compiled in 1939. Thomas was still a carpenter. Lily Gertrude died in Nottingham in 1968 and her husband placed memorial and postmortem birthday notices in the local papers for several years after (Nottingham Evening Post: Monday 5th January 1970; Nottingham Evening Post: Monday 29th March 1971) etc.. Thomas died in 1976 aged ninety years old.
Family Tree
GRANDPARENTS
Grandfather: James Pinsent: 1831 – 1902
Grandmother: Emma Jackson: 1831 – 1903
PARENTS
Father: James Pinsent: 1862 – 1936
Mother: Emma Elizabeth Poxon: 1865 – 1892
FATHER’S SIBLINGS (AUNTS, UNCLES)
Hannah Martha Pinsent: 1857 – xxxx
Georgiana Pinsent: 1859 – 1925
James Pinsent: 1862 – 1936 ✔️
Adrian Pinsent: 1864 – 1945
Fanny Pinsent: 1866 – 1940
Charlotte Ann Pinsent: 1868 – xxxx
Emily Pinsent: 1870 – xxxx
Arthur Edwin Pinsent: 1872 – 1938
MALE SIBLINGS (BROTHERS, Half-BROTHERS)
Thomas Pinsent: 1885 – 1976 ✔️
James Pinsent: 1886 – 1886
Arthur Pinsent: 1888 – 1889
James Pinsent: 1892 – 1972
Arthur Pinsent: 1894 – 1940
Albert Pinsent: 1896 – 1980
Lawrence Pinsent: 1899 – 1991
Also:
Henry Pinsent: 1884 – xxxx (?)
George Pinsent: 1886 – xxxx (?)
Ernest Pinsent: 1891 – xxxx (?)
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