Basil Hume Pinsent – The Pinsent Family

Vital Statistics

Basil Hume Pinsent: 1911 – 2000 GRO0085 (Solicitor, London)

Patricia Arbery Mary Atteridge: 1921 – 1997
Married: 1942: London

Children by Patricia Arbery Mary Atteridge:

Son (GRO0164)
Daughter (GRO1362)
Daughter (GRO0678)

Family Branch: Devonport
PinsentID: GRO0085

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Basil Hume was the only son of Adolphus Ross Pinsent by his second wife, Ethel Mary Philomena Whitelaw. He was born in Hampstead in 1911 and he grew up in Tunbridge Wells in Kent. Basil attended a Catholic “preparatory” school called Ladycross in Seaford in Essex in the early 1920s, and was there when the 1921 census was taken.

He moved from Ladycross to “Downside” a major Catholic “Public” (private) school in Somerset. It was an interesting choice – bearing in mind that two of his half-brothers, (Sidney Hume and Cecil Ross Pinsent) had gone to “Marlborough College” in Wiltshire and another, (Gerald Hume Saverie Pinsent), had been sent to “King’s School Canterbury” in Kent – which is at the heart of the Anglican Church! Perhaps his mother was a Roman Catholic; or perhaps Ross just found it convenient to send Basil to the same school that his Catholic South American grandsons were going to.

Basil was part of the chorus when the school performed the Gilbert and Sullivan’s opera “Iolanthe” in December 1927 (Western Daily Press: 1^st December 1927). However, that was not to be his principal claim to fame. The following year he left the school with a “Higher Certificate Distinction” in “Ancient History” (Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette: 8^th December 1928) and with the school’s prestigious “Gregory Medal” – which he received in person (Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette: 7^th December, 1929). This led to a “Major Classical Scholarship” at “Trinity Hall,” in Cambridge in 1929.

Time-lines and relationships get complicated in this branch of the family. Basil was two years older than his father’s eldest grandson (Harold Ross Pinsent), who was Basil’s half-brother Sidney Hume Pinsent’s eldest son! Harold’s parents lived in South America and he, along with his younger brothers, stayed with their grandfather (and Basil) between school terms. Harold’s time at “Downside” must have partially overlapped with Basil’s.

Basil’s father, Adolphus Ross Pinsent, died in August 1929 but his mother stayed on in the family home at “#52 Woodbury Park Road, Tunbridge Wells.” Basil returned there from university and he must have spent a considerable amount of time there with Sidney Hume’s children.

The Pinsents were well-known in and around Tunbridge Wells, and they were frequently invited to high-profile weddings and other social events in the 1930s. Basil retained his interest in Catholicism throughout his life and he returned to “Downside” on several occasions. He witnessed the enthronement of two Abbots, the first in 1933 (Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette: 30^th December 1933) and the second in 1939 (Kent and Sussex Courier: 20^th January 1939. He studied law at Cambridge and passed the “Law Society’s” preliminary examination in July 1935 (Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer: 20^th July 1935). He finished his degree just before the onset of the “Second World War”.

Basil Hume had been a “Cadet Sergeant” in the “Officers Training Corp.” at school, and he was gazetted a “Second Lieutenant” in the “Royal Army Service Corps.” in September 1939. During the war, he served as a “Staff Captain,” where, I am not sure. After the war, he stayed on in the “Territorial Army,” and was awarded a “Territorial Efficiency Decoration” in 1952 (London Gazette 18th March 1952). Basil stepped down with the honorary rank of “Captain” when he reached the army’s mandatory retirement age in 1966 (London Gazette; 15^th March 1966).

Basil trained as a “solicitor” and was in private practice when he paid tribute to the Hon. Miriam B. Pearse, “Inspector of Factories,” when she presented her last case in Birmingham Police Court before leaving Birmingham for Wolverhampton in 1938 (Evening Despatch: Friday 13th May 1938).

On another occasion, in court in 1947, he argued that “Derby Cables Ltd.” was unaware of the danger posed by one of its machines, and said that it admitted guilt in not having fully protecting an employee from injury. He went on to say that the problem had now been rectified (Derby Daily Telegraph: 10^th October 1947) … leniency, please! He also pleaded for mercy when “Smith’s Crisp Company” was charged with selling a cooked earwig in one of its packages (Staffordshire Sentinel: Tuesday 21st January 1969) – and also when they sold underweight packages in 1969 (I am sure I bought some). He explained that the weighing machines were hard to calibrate and, besides, they sometimes sold overweight bags – so it evened out (Birmingham Daily Post: Saturday 9^th August 1969).

Basil was a partner in the firm of “Warren, Murton & Co.,” Solicitors of “45 Bloomsbury Square, London W.C.1”, (London Gazette: 11^th July 1952), a firm that seems to have probated a lot of wills. The London Gazette contains numerous requests for persons having claims against the estates of recently deceased testators to bring it to his attention – if they wished to be considered for payment by the estate. Basil was never a member of “Pinsent & Co.”; however he did (on at least one occasion) conduct business with his cousin, Sir Roy Pinsent. “Warren, Murton & Co.” submitted a petition to the “High Court of Justice (Chancery Division)” relating to the winding up of a company, “K. & B. Motors (Newcastle) Limited” on behalf of its solicitors, “Pinsent & Co., of 6 Bennett’s Hill in Birmingham” in November 1963 (London Gazette: 26^th November 1963). When Basil’s half brother, Gerald Hume Saverie Pinsent died in 1976, it fell to Basil Hume and Clive James Gordon Lewis of “Warren, Murton and Co.”, (by then of Harley Street in London) to handle his estate.

Basil Hume Pinsent married Patricia Arbery Mary Atteridge in London during the war. He was a young army officer and she was the daughter of a “physician” and “surgeon” who was working as a “volunteer nurse”. They had two children while living at “85 Ladbrooke Grove W.11.,” in London after the war; a son, who is now a retired businessman, and a daughter. The family had moved to Chelsham, near Croydon, before their second daughter was born n 1947.

Basil was an active member of Chelsham parish council in the late 1950s (Surrey Mirror: Friday 15th May 1959) and was its chair in 1967. He wrote a disapproving letter to the Regional District Council in November that year for their proposing to put an approved school in Chelsham – despite the objections of the community. It was to be between a mental hospital and a primary school (Surrey Mirror: Friday 17th November 1967). My father, Dr. Robert John Francis Homfray Pinsent, corresponded with Basil while he was in Chelsham in the late 1960s and 1970s.

Basil and Patricia moved to Lingfield, in Surrey, at some point. Patricia became the “community care secretary” there, and she was actively involved in discussions regarding an expensive (£50,000) new community centre (East Grinstead Observer: Thursday 28th October 1978). It was badly needed, but how would the costs be met? In 1980, she headed an appeal for volunteers to come and visit with, and assist, elderly people in the district (East Grinstead Observer: Thursday 24th January 1980). There was a lot to be done in the district and she was grateful for a £250 grant from “Tandridge District Council later in the year. It would help provide greater mobility in the area.

Lingfield could now “include increased transportation facilities to take people to hospital and visit sick relatives. General secretary of community care, Mrs. Pat Pinsent of 3 Star Cottages Church Close, Lingfield, described the work of the association. We are literally the safety net of the community she said. It becomes a local citizens advice bureau. She added that requests could range from people needing a babysitter or push chair to washing machine. One of the main roles of community care is to provide transport especially for people to visit relatives in hospital. Mrs. Pinsent said that at the moment she had a list of nearly 30 volunteer drivers. …” (East Grinstead Observer: Thursday 10th July 1980). Some time later, she put out a call for deckchairs and benches for the community centre’s garden (Caterham Mirror: Friday 4rh July 1986) and a few years after that she, and a Miss Nicola Matthews, the district chiropodist, inspected the local “Day Centre” to see if it would be a suitable site for a chiropody centre (Horley & Gatwick Mirror: Thursday 24th March 1988).

Lingfield was a small community and she was well regarded, both for her community work and for her governorship of Lingfield Primary School. When she died in 1997, the villagers installed a Memorial lectern in St. Bernard’s Catholic Church inscribed with her initials and her date of birth (East Grinstead Observer: Wednesday 20th May 1998).

Basil evidently enjoyed country life. In 1999, he wrote a letter to the editor of the Spectator regarding what he felt was a “hanging offence”: “Sir: I always enjoy ‘Country Life’; I was surprised, however, to see that Leanda de Lisle (16^th October) may have allowed her young son to eat the partridge on the day he shot it. It would have been very bland”: Signed: Basil H. Pinsent, Ridgeway Manor, Oxted, Surrey. He had good taste and as well as partridge he liked rare and valuable books. He was the owner of some interesting items – included in a “Catalogue of Valuable Printed Books, Autographs Letters and Historical Documents” prepared by “Sotheby’s Auction House” for sale in 1974 (www.livre-rare-book.com). Basil died in 2000. His children are now married with families of their own.

Family Tree

GRANDPARENTS

Grandfather: Richard Steele Pinsent: 1820 – 1864
Grandmother: Catherine Agnes Ross: 1830 – 1906

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