Vital Statistics
George Henry Pinsent: 1867 – 1934 GRO0353 (Shoe Manufacturer, Leicester)
Sarah Ann Brewin: 1866 – 1937
Married: Leicester, Leicestershire: 1890
Children by Sarah Ann Brewin:
Ethel Mary Pinsent: 1890 – 1957
William Henry Pinsent: 1892 – 1892
Doris Hilda Pinsent: 1897 – xxxx
Family Branch: Tiverton
PinsentID: GRO0353
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George Henry was the eldest son of Charles Pinsent by his wife, Susannah (née Bagshaw). He was born in Leicester in 1867 and grew up there, in St. Mary’s parish. He was living with his family Walnut Street when the 1881 census was taken. He was a schoolboy at the time; however, he was shortly to join the workforce. His father Charles Pinsent died the following year and Susannah was faced with bringing up his seven children – and later an eighth, as she had an illegitimate daughter three years after her husband died – on her own.
When he enlisted as a Private in the Leicestershire Regiment in August 1886, George was said to be a “shoe trade worker.” His “Attestation Papers” go on to show that he was eighteen years and ten months old, was 5 feet 7 inches tall, weighed 122 pounds, had a fresh complexion, blue eyes, brown hair and no distinguishing features. He signed on to serve in the 1st Battalion for a term of twelve years (Regimental Number 1817) but, in fact, he was discharged at his “own request on payment of 18 pounds” on the 18th November 1889.
In the event, he served “at home” for less than two years and had no campaign medal, or wounds to show for it! Nevertheless, the British Army’s Service Records 1760 – 1913 (findmypast) show that he was of “very good” character and “temperate” and he left with a “3rd Class Education Certificate”. Despite his relatively short period of service, George Henry’s name was entered into the United Kingdom, Chelsea Pensioners’ list of Service Records: 1970 – 1913.
George Henry was still single when he was discharged in York in November 1889. However, he soon to remedied that – in fact his pending marriage may have been the reason he left the army and went back to the shoemaking business as a “clicker.” He married Sarah Ann Brewin, the daughter of a “labourer” in April 1890. They had three children, two daughters (Ethel Mary and Doris Hilda) who both survived childhood and a son William Henry Pinsent who, unfortunately, did not. The family was living on Curzon Street at the time of the 1891 Census and it was still there in 1896 (Leicester Electoral Registers). However, it had moved to a house on Hinckley Road by 1900.
George was still a “clicker” in the shoe trade when the census takers caught up with the family in 1911 but, according to Kelly’s Directory, he was a “boot maker” the following year. Presumably he sold them too – as Harriet Smith, a widow was accused of stealing a pair of his boots, valued at 4s 11d, from him in 1916 (Leicester Daily Mercury: Thursday 6th January 1916). She denied it, but had priors and was convicted anyway. George must have gone into partnership with a Mr. George Henry Allen at some point and run a joint business out of an establishment on Paradise Street. According to the London Gazette (23rd January 1920): “The Partnership heretofore subsisting between us, the undersigned, George Henry Pinsent and Charles Alfred Allen, carrying on (business as Boot and Shoe Manufacturers, at Paradise-lane, Leicester, under the style or firm of ” G. H. PINSENT & Co.,” has been dissolved (by mutual consent) as on and from the twentieth day of January, 1920.”
In 1920 census takers found that George Henry was employed by “Rawson and Sons, Boot and Shoe Manufacturers” in North Evington. He was living on Hinckley Road with his wife, who was burdened with “home duties” and his two adult daughters, Ethel Mary, who was a “hosiery trade machinist” employed by “Stretton and Sons, Hosiery Manufacturers” in Southgate Street, and Doris Hilda, who was a “boot-trade clicker” employed by “Squirels Boot and Shoe Manufacturers” in Campbell Street.
After the war, George Henry and his wife seem to have decided to develop a boot and shoe business of their own – Kelly’s Directory refers to “Mrs. Sarah Ann Pinsent, boot maker, 23 Hinckley Road, Leicester” in 1925 and 1928. We also find that when Thomas Broadbent was sentenced at “Leicester City Police Court” to seven day’s hard labour for stealing a pair of boots in 1930, they belonged to “Sarah Ann Pinsent, boot and shoe dealer.” He pleaded mitigating cirumstances – he said that he “had had a drop of beer when he did it. I am sorry for that” (Leicester Evening Mail: Saturday 21st June 1930. Sadly, George Henry died in November 1934.
George and Sarah’s elder daughter Ethel Mary Pinsent seems to have remained unmarried. She was a “retired hosiery machinist” when she died in Kirby Muxloe, in Leicestershire, in 1957. She left her estate, valued at £294, to her married sister, Doris Hilda Brown (England and Wales, National Probate Calendar: 1858-1966: (Ancestry.com). Ethel was living with her sister Doris and her husband, on Sybil Road in Leicester, when the Wartime register was compiled in 1939.
Doris Hilda Pinsent sang well, and put her voice to good use as a member of a troupe of singers guided Mr. Walter Groocock, L.R.A.M., F.R.C.O. The teenagers, who were known as the “Court Jesters,” were much in demand at local functions in 1909 and in the years that followed (Midland Free Press: 7th November 1908).
Doris also sang with others people, and branched out into “musical monologues” (Midland Free Press: 26th April 1910). She was much in demand that year and she performed at countless events – including at a couple of “Tramwaymens’ Concerts” (Leicester Daily Post: Saturday 12th March and Saturday 22nd October 1910). Doris performed at a “Royal Army Temperance Association” event in Glen Parva the following year (Leicester Daily Post: Thursday 9th March 1911) and, among others audiences, entertained “Blind and Crippled Children” with a monologue entitled “The last Token,” early in 1912 (Leicester Daily Post: Saturday 17th February 1912). She was much in demand!
Doris’s “musical monologues” quickly evolved into proper monologues and recitations, and it was as an “elocutionist” that she presented the musical monologue “If only we knew” at the Sanvey Gate Mission Hall (Leicester Evening Mail: Monday 18th April 1910). She later gave two recitals, “Santa Claus” and “The Road to Heaven” at a meeting of the “Men’s Guild of Help” in January 1912 (Leicester Evening Mail: Monday 15th January 1912). Doris may have been a member of the Leicester Co-operative Choir as she was called upon to perform with them in December 1912 (Midland Free Press: 7th December 1912). Evidently, “The programme was augmented by a number of recitals by Miss Doris Pinsent. This talented young lady gave sympathetic interpretations of “The Death of Minnehaha” from Longfellow’s “Hiawatha,” and “Toby” (Elizabeth Kilham, a story of the American Civil War). She was encored for both pieces, and responded with two humorous stories, viz., “The girl and the gloves” and “The bald-headed man” in which she was equally successful”.
Doris’s engagements continued throughout 1913 (Leicester Daily Mercury: Friday 24th January 1913 etc.) and into 1914, 1915, 1916 and 1917. In the latter years, Doris was primarily raising money for the war effort and for charities, and/or entertaining the troops. In February 1915 she recited “two neat little poems” at a “Church Lad’s Brigade” concert (Leicester Evening Mail: Thursday 11th February 1915). She also attended the evidently, “high class concert” given to the soldiers at the Groby Road Hospital in Leicester in July 1915. Miss Edith Payne and her pupils performed and Doris gave a rendition of “The First Settler’s Story” and followed up with “The Culprit”.
The war dragged on, and Doris contributed to the Mayoress’s “Red Cross Fund” entertainment the following February 1916 (Leicester Evening Mail: Friday 11th February 1916), and to a concert for wounded servicemen at the Royal Infirmary ten days later (Leicester Evening Mail: Monday 21st February 1916). She was equally active entertaining the troops and the wounded at Groby Hospital – and elsewhere – throughout 1917 and, presumably, 1918. In October 1917, she was took part in a benefit concert at the “Oxford Street Adult School” to provide the funds necessary to send “Christmas parcels to members at the front” (Leicester Evening Mail: Tuesday 17th October 1917). “There was a large attendance.”
Doris worked in the shoe and boot trade for most of her early life; however, she had trained to be a “short-hand typist” by the time she married Victor Hassall Brown, “a motor engineer” in Leicester, in June 1924.
Family Tree
GRANDPARENTS
Grandfather: Thomas Pinsent: 1795 – 1860
Grandmother: Hannah Johnson: 1800 – 1871
PARENTS
Father: Charles Pinsent: 1842 – 1882
Mother: Susannah Bagshaw: 1844 – xxxx
FATHER’S SIBLINGS (AUNTS, UNCLES)
Fanny Pinsent: 1820 – 1880
William Pinsent: 1822 – xxxx
Thomas Pinsent: 1824 – 1831
Caroline Pinsent: 1825 – 1864
James Pinsent: 1831 – 1902
Elizabeth Pinsent: 1833 – 1833
Elizabeth Pinsent: 1833 – xxxx
John Pinsent: 1836 – 1899
Henry Pinsent: 1838 – 1846
George Pinsent: 1839 – 1857
MALE SIBLINGS (BROTHERS)
George Henry Pinsent: 1867 – 1934
Walter Pinsent: 1869 – 1950
Ernest Alfred Pinsent: 1877 – 1902
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