Vital Statistics
Sydney John Pinsent: 1891 – 1968 GRO0807
Beatrice Mary Drew: 1894 – 1963
Married: 1919: Uplowman, Tiverton, Devon
Children by Beatrice Mary Drew:
Ernest John Pinsent: 1920 – 2011 (Married Muriel Unknown, xxxx, xxxx, xxxx)
Family Branch: Bristol
PinsentID: GRO0807
References
Newspapers
Click here to view close family members.
Sydney John Pinsent was the only surviving son of Laura Ann Pinsent who was the eldest daughter of John Pinsent by his wife Ann Paddon. His mother was a “lathe treader” in a pottery factory and he was born near her workplace at Coldeast in Ilsington parish. Sydney was Laura’s only surviving illegitimate son. Her three other illegitimate children died before she settled down and married Charles Heath in June 1900.
The census taken the following year (1901) shows that Sydney was living with his grandparents at “#16 South View” in Bovey Tracey. It is not clear why he was not living with his mother and her new husband; perhaps they were both working, or perhaps it was more to do with his schooling. However, he later rejoined them. Sydney was living in Chudleigh Knighton, in Hennock with his mother and five young half-siblings when the next census was taken, in 1911. By then he was a “brickyard labourer” working alongside his step-father.
Sydney did not stay at the brick works for long, however; in October 1913 he signed on for twelve years of service in the “Royal Navy” and he was included in a list of Chudleigh and District men who had signed up for war service in the South Devon Weekly Express on 1st January 1915. He, off course, had no idea that he was soon to be at war when he signed up. According to his official records (National Archives: ADM 188/908); he was 5 ft. 4 ½ in. tall, had a chest expansion from 23 ½ to 37 in., a “fresh” complexion, brown hair and hazel eyes. Added to this, he had a mole over one clavicle and a birthmark on his left shoulder – to say nothing of a selection of tattoos, including clasped hands, a head and a female figure on his arms. Sydney signed on as a “Stoker, 2nd Class” [K20896] but was raised to “Stoker 1st Class” in October 1914, at the outbreak of the “First World War.” He was a “Leading Stoker” when it ended in November 1918. Stokers were much in demand when ships were powered by steam. Sydney served on a number of British warships, separated by stints at “H.M.S. Vivid II” – one of the Navy’s many “stone frigates” or Naval shore stations.
Most of Sydney’s “First World War” was spent on assignment to the battleship “H.M.S. Conqueror” where he was on board shoveling coal during the battle of Jutland, off Denmark, in May/June 1916. This was one of the most serious naval engagement of the war. “H.M.S Conqueror” may have (somewhat embarrassingly) had a problem with its engines at the time as it was under-powered during the battle. It fired off a few salvos without causing any apparent damage on the enemy. The British took more casualties than the Germans at Jutland but succeeded in deterring the German fleet from making any other serious sallies into the North Sea – which counted as a win. The “Conqueror” spent the rest of the war training crew and patrolling the North Sea. It was decommissioned in 1919. Sydney was eligible for the “Star”, “Victory” and “British War” medals (U.K. Naval Medal and Award Rolls: 1793 -1972: Ancestry.com)
After spending a few months at “H.M.S. Vivid II”, Sydney moved to another battleship, “H.M.S. Warspite.” He served on it (except when home on leave, of course) from April 1920 until August 1924. When the census takers visited William Drew in Uplowman, in Devon, in 1921 they found he had visitors: his married daughter Beatrice Mary Pinsent, her husband Sydney (a “leading stoker on H.M.S. Warspite”) and their son, Ernest John Pinsent who was less than a year old.
Sydney had another shore-break before being posted to “H.M.S. Empress of India” in December 1924. He was on its manifest until December 1927. From there, he was returned to shore before receiving several short-term placements on light cruisers such as the “H.M.S. Frobisher”, “H.M.S. Caradoc” and “H.M.S. Caledon” in the 1930s. In his later years, he was invariably described as having a “V.G.” character and “Supr” level of efficiency.
It is not clear what Sydney did after being pensioned off in his mid-forties, in October 1935. However, he shows up at a well-attend whist drive in Uplowman in November 1938. He must have played cards on board and he did well and was one of the winning “gentlemen” (Exeter and Plymouth Gazette: Friday 11th November 1938). He made a good showing in February the following year too (Western Times: Friday 10th February 1939). Sydney seems to have rejoined the navy at the outset of the “Second World War”. He served as a “Leading Stoker” at “H.M.S. Drake” and at other shore stations between the 24th August 1939 and the 16th August 1945 (Royal Navy Register of Seamens’ Services: 1848-1939: and National Archives: ADM 188/908). It is not clear how much time he spent at sea.
Sydney was awarded a “Royal Navy Long Service and Good Conduct Medal” while serving on “H.M.S. Frobisher” in December 1928 (U.K. Naval Medal and Award Rolls: 1793 – 1972: Ancestry.com) and, better still, we find that “Leading Stoker Sydney John Pinsent of H.M.S. Carlisle was awarded a Distinguished Service Medal in 1942.” He received the decoration from the King as his wife and son looked on in November that year (Western Times: Friday 27th November 1942). The “Carlisle” was an old cruiser that had been returned to service in an anti-aircraft role during the “Second World War”. It spent much of it’s time on naval support and escort duties in the Mediterranean and helped escort a critical supply convoy into Malta in March 1942.
After the “First World War”, Sydney found time to marry Beatrice Mary Drew. They married in Uplowman, near Tiverton in Devon in 1919 – which explains why he was living there in the 1930s. They had a son, Ernest John Pinsent in 1920. How much Ernest saw of his father, I cannot say. The Electoral Rolls show that the family – or at least Beatrice and her son, lived at “Greengate” in Uplowman from 1921 to at least 1931. They also show that Sydney John was (almost invariably) on the “Absentee Voters list”.
Sydney was away from home – presumably back with the “Senior Service” when the England and Wales Register was compiled in 1939. His wife, Beatrice, was, however, living at “Shapcott Cottage”, in Tiverton. she probably had her son living with her; however, his name has been redacted. Beatrice’s mother Alice Drew died in Uplowman in 1940 and Beatrice and Ernest John were listed among the chief mourners. Her husband was once again, presumably, at sea (Western Times: Friday 26th April 1940).
When Sydney finally retired, he settled in Uplowman, and they were still there when Beatrice died at “Whitnage Cottage” in February 1963. Probate was granted to her husband, Sydney (England and Wales, National Probate Calendar, 1858-1966 (Ancestr.com). He died there in 1968 and both are buried in the local churchyard.
Their son, Ernest John Pinsent, married Muriel Helen England either sometime during or soon after the “Second World War”. In 1996, the “Daily Mail” newspaper ran an article on the first inhabitants of a row of council houses that had been built in Uplowman in 1946. Ernest, who was one of the oldest long-time resident of the village at the time, lived in one of them. He explained how he had joined the army and had fought with the “31st Tank Brigade” in Belgium, Holland and France, and then spent fourteen months convalescing in Italy after inadvertently drinking water from a well contaminated with the bodies of two dead German soldiers! He went on to say that he met his wife while he was assigned to work on a runway at Bristol. Evidently his “digs” there were bombed and he was, fortuitously, reassigned to the house next door to his wife-to-be, Muriel. For thirty-five years “Muriel worked as a domestic at the village school. In the forties and fifties Uplowman would be blanketed thickly in snow, Mr. Pinsent recalls, but in recent decades the winters have been warmer. The Pinsents are philosophical about never having children. “You can’t have everything,” says Mr. Pinsent. “In other ways we have had wonderful lives.” His wife says: “I was always baby-sitting for the others. I was bit like a surrogate mother really.” Their neighbours told similar tales and all described the primitive nature of their houses when they first moved in (Daily Mail: 28th March 1996).
Ernest “Ernie” Pinsent was an electrical engineer in the 1980s. He died, aged 90 years, in September 2011 and he was buried in the local churchyard. The Electoral Rolls show that Muriel was living in the same council house at “5, Crossways”, in Tiverton as recently as 2020.
Family Tree
GRANDPARENTS
Grandfather: John Pinsent: 1852 – 1917
Grandmother: Ann Paddon: 1849 – 1922
PARENTS
Father: Unknown: xxxx – xxxx
Mother: Laura Ann Pinsent: 1874 – 1940
MOTHER’S SIBLINGS (AUNTS, UNCLES)
Wallace Pinsent: 1877 – 1955
Ada Pinsent: 1880 – 1959
Albert John Pinsent: 1882 – 1928
Florence Annie Pinsent: 1885 – 1918
Lily Blanche Pinsent: 1887 – 1949
Beatrice May Pinsent: 1894 – 1894
Please use the above links to explore this branch of the family tree. The default “Next” and “Previous” links below may lead to other unrelated branches.