Vital Statistics
William Oliver Bristow Pinsent: 1900 – 1951 GRO0909 (Corporal Royal Air Force and mechanical “fitter,” Havant, Hampshire)
Muriel Harriet Pretoria Yellop: 1900 – 1961
Married: 1922: Portsmouth, Hampshire
Children by Muriel Harriet Pretoria Yellop:
Brenda Muriel Pinsent: 1923 – xxxx (Married John C. Bell, Portsmouth, Hampshire, 1977)
Family Branch: Bovey Tracey
PinsentID: GRO0909
References
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William Oliver Bristow Pinsent was the elder son of William Abraham Pinsent, by his wife Louisa (née Bristow). He was born in Plymouth in 1900, and had a younger brother and sister. Their father was an Officer in the Royal Navy Coast Guard, so the family moved around a lot. William would have seen the inside of a lot of coast-guard stations!
William joined the Royal Air Force in September 1918, just as the “First World War” was coming to an end. He never saw active service. William had signed on for the duration of the war but he later extended his term of service for four years more years. William Pinsent (#297705) was 5 ft. 9 in. tall when he enlisted. He had brown hair, brown eyes and a fresh complexion. He also had partial dentures. He joined as a trainee “fitter” and progressed through the ranks from being a “Private, 2nd Class” to being a “Corporal, A. Hand” on his discharge in March 1923. His proficiency was considered “satisfactory” throughout, and his character was considered to be “V.G.”.
It is hard to interpret the cramped writing and the acronyms scrawled over service record; however, he seems to have spent most of his time attached to 210 Squadron in Gosport, near Portsmouth in Hampshire. He was a “Corporal,” based at Fort Grange in Gosport, when the census was taken in 1921 and also the following year when he married Muriel Harriet Pretoria Yellop. She was the daughter of a “sergeant trumpeter” in the R.F.A. which, in this case, probably means the “Royal Fleet Auxiliary” – as it had a strong presence in the Solent area during the First World War. The initials also apply to the “Royal Field Artillery” – so that is a possibility. The Royal Air Force had its “Seaplane Training School” at Gosport and William Oliver Bristow, who was an “engineer’s fitter’s mate,” may well have worked on seaplanes.
William and Muriel had a daughter in 1923 and registered her birth in a nearby town, Havant. Sadly, the marriage did not go well and a few years later Muriel asked the Magistrates at “Havant Petty Sessions” to issue an order for financial support from her husband. They asked her if she would ever live with him again. She said no “because of his moral ways.” She told them that she had married in 1922 and had had a child by him in 1923. She also said that her husband had left the Royal Airforce and joined the “Southbourne Ice Company,” and had deserted her in October 1925. He said that he wanted his freedom. Since then, she had had no maintenance from him, but he had paid her 10s per week for their child.
For his part, William said that he had asked Muriel to start afresh – but she had said no because she wanted her freedom. He also denied going out with other women. William explained to the magistrates that he earned £2 a week and paid her money for the child. He was prepared to make her a home. William was ordered to pay £1 weekly for his wife and child, and to pay the court £1 1s in costs (Portsmouth Evening News: Saturday 10th July 1926).
Although William Oliver Bristow had left the Royal Air Force in 1924, when his term of service expired, he remained on the books of the R.A.F. Reserve as an “Acting Aircraftsman (Section 2, Class E.)” until July 1927 (Royal Air Force Airman’s Service Records: 1912 – 1939: Findmypast).
William and Muriel both stayed on in the Havant area. Neither appear to have remarried, so they may have maintained an uneasy relationship. The electoral registers show that William was living by himself on Park Road, in Havant, in 1926 and Muriel and her daughter were living on Nelson Terrace, in Drayton (England and Wales, Electoral Registers: 1920 – 1932).
William Oliver Bristow is not mentioned in the 1939 Wartime Register; so he may have rejoined the Royal Air Force before it was compiled. His estranged wife, Muriel, was meanwhile, still living in Havant. She was living with an individual whose name has been redacted. Perhaps this is her daughter.
William became a “transport driver” for the Air Ministry after the war. He served at Thorney Island, an R.A.F. airfield, on the south coast, near Chichester in West Sussex.
William, or “Olly” as he was commonly known, died of a coronary while attending a soccer match (Portsmouth vs. Stoke City) on 10th November 1951 (Weekly Dispatch: Sunday 11th November 1951). Probate of his will was granted to his wife, Muriel Harriett Pretoria Pinsent – so they were still in contact. His effects were valued at £694 3s 7d. (England and Wales, National Probate Calendar: 1858-1966: Ancestry.com). Muriel died in Portsmouth in the winter of 1961 and her daughter married there in 1977.
Family Tree
GRANDPARENTS
Grandfather: Samuel Pinsent: 1839 – 1912
Grandmother: Sarah Jane West: 1946 – 1931
PARENTS
Father: William Abraham West Pinsent: 1872 – 1958
Mother: Louisa Bristow: 1874 – 1958
FATHER’S SIBLINGS (AUNTS, UNCLES)
Rosetta Pinsent: 1868 – xxxx
Eleanor Elizabeth Pinsent: 1870 – 1942
Samuel George Caleb Pinsent: 1875 – 1951
Lily Hetty Pinsent: 1877 – 1955
Beatrice Mary Ann Pinsent: 1879 – xxxx
Louisa Pinsent: 1882 – 1893
Bessie Pinsent: 1884 – 1918
Thomas Charles Pinsent: 1886 – 1889
Ann Pinsent: 1887 – 1889
MALE SIBLINGS (BROTHERS)
William Oliver Bristow Pinsent: 1900 – 1951
Charles Hubert Pinsent: 1909 – 2009
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