Vital Statistics
Charles Burton Pynsent: 1907 – 1967 GRO0129 (Royal Air Force Officer, Company Director, Speldhurst, Surrey)
1. Lorna Ruth Tasman Moss: 1912 – xxxx
Married: 1933: Lahore, Punjab, India
2. Bessie Florence Hunt: 1907 – 1996
Married: 1942: Windsor, Berkshire
Children by Bessie Florence Hunt:
Robert Burton Pynsent: 1943 – 2022
Son (GRO0710)
Family Branch: Hennock
PinsentID: GRO0129
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Charles Burton Pynsent was the only son of Robert Burton Pynsent by his wife Mary Isobel (née Addie). He was born in London in 1907 and moved to Eastbourne, in Sussex, with his family in around 1910. After his parents divorced in 1916, he went to live with his mother in Datchet, in Buckinghamshire.
Charles was at school, in the care of the Rev. Trevor Hubert Edwards when the 1921 census was taken. He was a “boarder” at “St. Felix School”, in Southwold, Suffolk. He later attended “Courtenay Lodge School” in Sutton Courtenay in Berkshire and rowed in its coxed four at the local regatta in June 1924 (Reading Observer: Saturday 21st June 1924).
From there, he went up to Cambridge. Charles Burton Pynsent attended Selywn College in Cambridge between 1929 and 1932 and graduated with a B.A (Cantab). While at Cambridge, he joined the College rowing club and, in his book “A Personal History of the Selwyn College Boat Club” Mr. A. P. McEldowney (www.sel.cam.ac.uk/history-selwyn-boat-club) describes his changing role. Charles was Honourary Secretary in 1929/30 and 2nd Captain in 1930/31. He rowed in the College VIII – as Stroke (immediately in front of the Cox) in 1929, as #2 (second from the back) in 1929/30 and as #6 in 1930/31. All in all, his career did not match that of Sir Matthew Pinsent in the 1990s and 2000s but it was, nevertheless, a commendable undertaking.
My father (Dr. Robert John Francis Homfray Pinsent) went up to Selywn College a few years later and I never thought to ask “why there?” My grandfather (Francis Wingfield Homfray Pinsent) was on friendly terms with Charles’s father, Robert Burton Pynsent – and it is quite possible that “Cousin Bob” recommended the college. I gather from a letter my father wrote to Robert Burton’s grandson – another Robert Burton Pynsent – (27th April 1964) that his grandfather had “helped him” while he was at University. Some of the help could have been financial.
Charles obtained a B.A. (Cantab) and set sail for Ceylon (Sri Lanka) on the P. & O. Steam Ship “Maloja” on 11th January 1933. From there, he must have taken a steamer to Karachi in present-day Pakistan, as he married Lorna Ruth Tasman Moss, at Lahore, in the Punjab (Bengal Presidency) in April 1933 (British India Office Ecclesiastical Returns: Findmypast.com). The marriage certificate says that he was then in “business”. What he was actually doing I do not know but the couple did not for long stay in India. They arrived back in London on “R.M.S. City of Marseilles”, on 3rd April 1934.
Charles and Lorna developed an interest in flying on their return, and we find that “Mr. C. B. Pynsent, of Lynwood House, Woodstock Road, Strood” was appointed secretary to the Rochester Flying Club when it was first formed in October 1936. He admitted that “he knew practically nothing about flying, but (said) he would work to the best of his ability to further the interests of the club and its members”. The club had the support of the Mayor and Council of Rochester and one of Britain’s of the major aircraft manufacturers – Short Bros, so there was considerable excitement in the air. … (Chatham, Rochester and Brompton Observer: 2nd October 1936).
Around then, Lorna decided to take parachute lessons at Gravesend Airport. She was 24 years old at the time and had a two-year-old boy. The papers tell us that she was not the least bit scared when she made her first drop, so I assume she achieved her goal of becoming qualifying as a parachutist (Belfast Telegraph: Tuesday 3rd November 1936)! According to my father (Robert John Francis Homfray Pinsent), her unnamed son “is thought to have gone out to Canada”. However, I know nothing about him and he is not included in the database.
Charles was the Director of an Aero-hire Service and a “Special Constable in Croydon when the wartime Register was compiled in 1939. His wife was noticeable absent. She was a “Land Girl” living with a farmer near Maidstone, in Kent. Two years later, Lorna petitioned for a divorce from Charles on grounds of desertion – and it was granted in April 1941. My grandfather kept a copy of the document. Lorna married a Canadian “architect” and Captain in the Hamilton Light Infantry, John Turner Bell, in Aldershot, in Hampshire the following month. Their marriage documents tell us that Lorna came from a military family and her father was a structural Engineer who had retired from the Indian Service of Engineers. I assume she took her unnamed son out to Canada. Perhaps he changed his name to Bell.
Charles, meanwhile, married Bessie Florence Hunt, a clerk working for the Ministry of Labour, at Windsor Registry Office, in July 1942. According to her son Robert Burton Pynsent’s obituary (The London Times: 8th April 2023), she was the “graphic designer” who later created the original wrappers for the “Mars Bar”, “Poppets” and “Maltesers” chocolate confections. At the time of their wedding, Charles was described as being both a “Company Director” and a “Pilot Officer” in the Royal Air Force. Charles Burton had joined the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve as an “Acting Pilot Officer” (on probation) in August 1941 and been promoted to “Pilot Officer” in October that year. He advanced to “Flight Officer” (on probation) in October 1942 (British Army, Navy & Air Force Records: 1921 – 2000) and stayed on as a “Flight Officer” until he relinquished his commission “on account of medical unfitness for Air Force Service” in December 1945. He was allowed to retain his rank (London Gazette: 11th January 1946). Robert Burton’s obituary adds that he worked for the Royal Air Force Air Sea Rescue Service.
Charles and Bessie had two sons in the 1940s: the first was born at Milliken Park, in Renfrewshire, while Charles was serving in Scotland in 1943, and the second came while he was based in Caterham, in Surrey, in 1945. The family stayed on in Caterham until at least 1959 (British Telephone Books). However, they had moved to Speldhurst, near Tonbridge Wells, in Kent, by 1964. Charles Burton died in Croydon the following year.
Charles’s widow, Bessie stayed on in Speldhurst and she was a stalwart member of its Women’s Institute (Kent and Sussex Courier: 21st March 1975) until shortly before she died in 1996. Suffice it to say that her eldest son, Robert Burton Pynsent, became a well-known “Professor of Slavic Studies” and her second became an equally well-known “Director of Orthopedic Training” in Birmingham. Both co-authored, edited and wrote numerous articles in their respective fields. Sadly, Robert Burton died in December 2022. His life is described elsewhere.
Family Tree
GRANDPARENTS
Grandfather: Charles Pitt Pynsent: 1824 – 1903
Grandmother: Georgiana Pynsent: 1833 – 1916
PARENTS
Father: Robert Burton Pynsent: 1869 – 1953
Mother: Mary Isobel Addie: 1879 – 1956
FATHER’S SIBLINGS (AUNTS, UNCLES)
Frances Elizabeth Pynsent: 1853 – 1872
Mary Emily Pynsent: 1855 – xxxx
Charles Joseph Pynsent: 1858 – 1870
Marion Haslewood Pynsent: 1860 – 1898
Florence Edith Pynsent: 1862 – 1889
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