Vital Statistics
Adolphus Ross Pinsent: 1851 – 1929 GRO0009 (Company Director: London, & Buenos Aires)
1. Alice Mary Nuttall: 1855 – 1901
Married: 1877: Montevideo, Uruguay
Children by Alice Mary Nuttall:
Sidney Hume Pinsent: 1879 – 1969 (Mechanical Engineer; Married Beatrice Elena Le Bas, 1912)
Frances Maude Pinsent: 1882 – 1953 (Sister in Religion, Egham, Surrey)
Cecil Ross Pinsent: 1884 – 1963 (Garden Architect in England, Yugoslavia and Italy)
Gerald Hume Saverie Pinsent: 1888 – 1976 (Senior Civil Servant, first Married Katherine Kentisbeare Radford, 1915)
2. Ethel Mary Philomena Whitelaw: 1869 – 1955
Married: 1902: Hampstead, London
Children by Ethel Mary Philomena Whitelaw:
Basil Hume Pinsent: 1911 – 2000 (Solicitor, Company Director; Married Patricia Arbery Mary Atteridge, 1942)
Family Branch: Devonport
PinsentID: GRO0009
References
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Adolphus Ross was the eldest son of Richard Steele Pinsent by his wife, Catherine Agnes (née Ross). He was born and brought up in Devonport, and went out to Uruguay while still a young man – evidently intent on making his fortune. According to his grandson, Neville James Quintus Pinsent (personal communication), “Ross,” as he was known, left for South America shortly after his father’s drapery business failed; however, I am not aware that it ever did so. His father died in 1864 (when he was thirteen years old) and he passed it to his nephew Thomas Pinsent Horton who retained the name “Pinsent and Co.” and kept the business going for many years. There must have been some other reason.
Neville also said his grandfather became a successful “tobacconist” in Uruguay and returned to England a wealthy man. This is may be true; Mullhall’s Handbook of the River Place (1885) contains a Directory of Montevideo that shows that “Pinsent and Mathews” were “importers” at “#134 Misiones, Montevideo.” Uruguay was a pastoral country with a large English merchant community focused on the export of wool, beef (“Fray Bentos” Corned Beef comes to mind) and hides (“Fray Bentos” again). In those days, the “well-to-do” must have got their tobacco from somewhere.
Adolphus married Alice Mary Nuttall, “daughter of the late John Nuttall Esquire, merchant”, in Montevideo in 1877 (Pall Mall Gazette: 6th December 1877) and they had four children: Sidney Hume Pinsent, Frances Maude Pinsent, Cecil Ross Pinsent and Gerald Hume Saverie Pinsent who all did very well for themselves. Sidney Hume settled in South America and became a “mechanical engineer;” Cecil Ross was a well-regarded “landscape architect” in Italy between the wars and Gerald Hume a well respected “Civil Servant”. Sidney and Gerald married and had children. Frances and Cecil remained single.
Adolphus Ross returned to England in 1889 and settled in Hampstead, near London. There is a remarkable photograph of the family (Ross, Alice, Frances, Sidney, Cecil and Gerald) in the Robert Ewell Photograph Collection at the Royal Institute of British Architects. Somehow it made its way into one of Cecil Ross’s photograph albums.
Ross capitalized on his South American experience and became a “businessman” and a “director” of several companies with South America interests. One of his first directorships was with the “Buenos Aryes and Pacific Railway,” which he joined in August 1891: “Mr. M. H. Moses and Mr. William Rodger having retired from the Board, the Directors have elected Mr. Thomas C. Clarke, M. Inst. C.E., formerly general manager of the Buenos Ayres and Rosario Railway, and Mr. Ross Pinsent, who has recently returned from the River Plate after a long residence there, to fill the vacancies” (Herapath’s Railway Journal: Saturday 1st August 1891).
Ross’s wife, Alice Mary, died in March 1901 and Ross married Ethel Philomena Whitelaw, “daughter of the late Rev. G. Whitelaw, Clerk in Holy Orders” the following year. According to the 1891 Census, she had been his children’s governess since their returned to England. They had a son, Basil Hume Pinsent, who later became a “solicitor”.
Adolphus Ross Pinsent was good with numbers (as were so many in his extended family) and he knew Uruguay intimately; so it is hardly surprising that he joined a Committee formed in Britain to collate financial data pertinent to Uruguay. The results were reported in the “22nd Annual Report of the Council of the Corporation of Foreign Bondholders, for the Years 1894”. He probably served a similar function at other times, and he was certainly on a “Committee of Holders of Uruguayan Bonds” in 1929 – the year he died.
Ross was elected a Director of the “Mogyana (Railway) Company, of San Paulo, Brazil” and he supervised the lottery system used by the Company to determine who, annually, could redeem its five per cent £100 debenture bonds. A total of 129 numbers were drawn at the “British Bank of South America (Limited)” in London in 1891 and those bonds were solicited for redemption (London Daily News: 3rd October 1891). A further 157 numbers were drawn in 1895 (London Standard: 4th October 1895).
Ross joined the Board of the “Buenos Ayres (New) Gas Company” in 1891 and his appointment was ratified at the following annual general meeting, when it was held at “#1, East India Avenue, London” in June 1892. They were challenging times, and the chairman was quick to point out that although the Company had made a profit selling gas and coke, it was difficult operating in Argentina and there were important political and currency related issues to be taken into consideration. He added that, although the Company had asked Mr. Pinsent to join the Board, the remuneration paid to the directors would stay the same – it would just be divided among more people. What the other directors thought of that development I am not sure! The Chairman added that he himself had not drawn a penny from the Company this past year as “he thought the money might be wanted for the benefit of the Company” (Gas World: Volume 6: p659).
Presumably the company survived the “challenging times” as Ross was still a director when it floated a prospectus for debenture stock in London in 1897 (Pall Mall Gazette: 12th July 1897), and also when it negotiated a contract to supply gas in 1908. Nevertheless, in accordance with the terms of an agreement it made with the “Primitive Gas and Electric Lighting Company of Buenos Ayres, Limited”, dated December 2nd 1909, it issued a final dividend and it went into voluntary liquidation the following year a couple of years later (Evening Standard: Friday 22nd April 1910). Ross must have moved across to the latter company as he is later referred to as being a director of the “Primitiva Gas Company of Buenos Aires, Limited” (Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer: 14th December 1912).
Adolphus Ross was kept busy looking after the interests of British-managed firms with interests in South America; however, he seems to have retained his own company there too, as a list of British Exhibitors at an “Argentine Centenary Exhibition” in 1910 refers to the firm of “Pinsent, Mathews and Co.” Presumably it was his early venture in Montevideo.
Beyond that, there were plumbing as well as gas issues to be dealt with! Adolphus was on the board of the “Province of Buenos Ayres Waterworks Company Limited”(London Evening Standard: Wednesday 15th March 1911) and the “South Barracas (Buenos Ayres) Gas and Coke Company, Limited” – both of which were promoted and fronted by Mr. Conrad im Thurn. Ross’s son, Sidney Hume Pinsent lived in Buenos Aires and must have been invaluable to his father. Sidny was appointed Technical Director to the local boards of the “South Barracas Gas and Coke Co. Ltd.” and the “Province of Buenos Aires Water Works Construction Syndicate”.
Adolphus Ross was a director of the “British Bank of South America, Limited (Head Office, 2a Moorgate Street, London, E.C.)” in 1906 (Investor’s Monthly Manual: Volume 36: 1906) and he represented the firm at a Banquet held to honour General Roca – a past president of the Argentine Republic – when he visited London that year (Railway News: Saturday 21st July 1906).
Ross was elected a director of the “Consolidated Water-Works of Rosario Limited” (Journal of Gas Lighting, Water Supply & Sanitary Improvement: Volume 104: p693: 1908) in 1908. He joined the board of the “Bahia Blanca Gas Works (Construction) Syndicate Limited” and, in his capacity as chairman, wrote a letter published in the London Gazette (London Gazette: 29th November 1907) to inform shareholders that an Extraordinary meeting of the Company had been held at the Company Office at “No. 1 East India Avenue, London,” on 7th Nov. 1907, and the decision had been made to voluntarily wind up the company under provisions of the “Companies Acts 1862 to 1907” – and convert its outstanding shares into those of the “Bahia Blanca Gas Company”, according to a schedule laid out by the liquidator.
In his capacity as a “Director” of the “British Bank of South America,” Ross supervised the random drawing of bonds of the “Cantareira Water Supply and Drainage Company of the City of Sao Paulo” at the “British Bank of South America.” The lucky winners were entitled to present their 5 per cent bonds for redemption (London Evening Standard: Tuesday 9th September 1913). As with the “Mogyana (Railway) Company of Sao Paulo” this was not a one-off event. It seemed to have happened again the following year.
Interestingly, another Pinsent turns up working for the “British Bank of South America, Limited” shortly before the “First World War”. While reviewing the state of the company after the war, the “President” regretted the loss of 13 members of staff reported dead or missing and he mentioned that two had been held as prisoners of war. He also referred to two ex-employees who had been awarded the Military Cross and one who had been awarded a Distinguished Service Medal. Lieutenant G. H. Pinsent, M.C., (Guy Homfray Pinsent) must have worked in the Buenos Aires branch of the bank before enlisting (The Times: 20th April 1917). He belongs to the HENNOCK branch of the family. Guy’s mother, Lady Pinsent moved in the same social circle as Ross and very probably twisted his arm!
Although I know very little about Ross and Alice’s early life in Montevideo; it is clear that they made at least one trip home to visit family and (presumably) conduct business in the 1880s. On the 3rd April 1881 (the night of the census), Ross was in Erdington, near Birmingham, while his wife, Alice Mary (née Nutall) and his son eldest son Sidney Hume Pinsent were visiting with Ross’s mother, Catherine Agnes (née Ross) at “#107 Edith Road, Fulham, in London”. Ross’s brothers, Richard Alfred Pinsent and Hume Chancellor Pinsent were also there but Richard Alfred’s wife, Laura Proctor (née Ryland) was missing. She was visited a sister. The Census taker erroneously described Ross as being “unmarried” but accurately referred to him as a being “A River Plate Merchant”.
Ross’s two brothers (Richard Alfred and Hume Chancellor) were solicitors in Birmingham, so it is hardly surprising that Ross initially chose to stay in Birmingham when he returned to England. He was living at “#40 Wellington Road, Bristol Road Birmingham” (Kelly’s Directory of Birmingham 1890) in 1890. However, it was a short stay as he purchased a house at “#22 Maresfield Gardens, in St. John’s, Hampstead”, and he was living there with his wife and children Frances M. (Maud) (9), Cecil R. (Ross) (6) and (Gerald) Hume (Saverie) (2) when the National Census was taken in 1891. Alice and her children were “British Subjects born in Montevideo, Uruguay”. Ross’s eldest son, Sidney Hume Pinsent, was presumably away at school. Alice Mary died at Maresfield Gardens, in May 1901 (London Standard: 26th May 1901) and Ross remarried the following year.
Ross may have taken a business trip to the United States shortly after settling back in England. The “S.S. Britannic‘s” ship’s manifest shows that he left Liverpool for New York and arrived there on 6th July 1889 (New York Passenger Lists: 1820-1957: Ancestry.com). How he got on, I do not know; however, Ross returned to North America with his brother Richard Alfred Pinsent a few years later. They left Southampton for New York on the “U.S.M.S. New York” (Anglo American Times: 2nd June 1894) and passed through Winnipeg, Manitoba, while heading toward the west coast by train (The Daily Nor’Wester: 14th May 1894). The “Trans Canada Railway” had been completed in 1885 but the Canadian west was still largely untouched and Ross may have sought business opportunities. I am not aware that anything in particular came out of the trip. The brothers’ wives stayed home with their children. Meanwhile Ross retained his business interests in South America and still had family out there. He seems to have made several trips to Argentina in the 1890s.
There were, of course, business opportunities in England. Richard Alfred Pinsent (Ross’s brother) helped the firm of “Hinks and Company” to apply for a patent for “an improvement in lamps for burning paraffin oil and other volatile liquid hydrocarbons” in 1877 (Birmingham Daily Post: 25th January 1877). He probably introduced his brother to the Company principals, and they appointed him a director of the firm of “James Hinks and Son Limited” in the late 1890s. This appointment was confirmed annually between 1902 (Leamington Spa Courier: 27th June 1902) and 1908 (Leamington Spa Courier: 22 may 1908). It was Ross who was responsible for notifying the directors of the death Captain Hinks (the son of Mr. Joseph Hinks, J.P., the chairman of the board of directors) in May 1902 (Birmingham Mail: Wednesday 14th May 1902). He had, sadly, been killed in action in South Africa during the Boar War.
The firm made “Duplex” oil lamps and electrical light fittings for the domestic and overseas markets. It was a tough business to be in and the firm was clearly under stress from both German and American competition (Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer: 28th may 1904) in the early 1900s. Richard Alfred Pinsent probated Mr. James Hinks, the company president’s will when he died in 1906. Interestly, he had, at one time, been president of “Aston Villa Football Club” (Leamington Spa Courier: 23rd February 1906) which was a very successful Birmingham-based soccer team in the 1890s. Unfortunately, it was less so when I lived in Birmingham in the 1960s. Ross was reelected as a director of “James Hinks and Son, Limited” in 1913 (Birmingham Mail: Friday 16th May 1913).
In the early 1920s, Ross and his second wife, Ethel Philomena (née Whitelaw) moved to “#52 Woodbury Park Road, Tunbridge Wells, Kent” (British Telephone Books 1880 – 1984: Tunbridge Wells: 1923). It was to be their home well into old age. It was there that they entertained their South American son, Sidney Hume Pinsent, and his children when they were back for visits, and it was from there that he took responsibility for both his own son, Basil Hume and his South American grandsons, while they attended school in England. Ross and Ethel were well known in the local community and they (like their relations in Birmingham) attended numerous “fashionable weddings” – as well as a like number of funerals. Ross appears to have indulged himself playing chess and he seems to have been a keen amateur player (Chess Amateur, Volume 4-5: 1910; British Chess Magazine: Volumes 74-75: 1954).
Mr. Ross Pinsent, of “52 Woodbury Park Road” died at Molyneux Park in Tunbridge Wells on 18th August 1929. He was interred at the “Borough Cemetery” after a Roman Catholic service (Kent and Sussex Courier: 23rd August 1929). Probate of his estate was granted to Ethel Mary Philomena Pinsent (widow), Roy Pinsent, “solicitor” (nephew), and Gerald Hume Saverie, “civil servant” (son). His “Effects” were initially given as £60,592 5s 6d and were later “re-sworn” as £60,581 9s 6d. Ethel Mary Philomena Pinsent stayed on in Tunbridge Wells until at least 1949. She died at Sanderstead, in Surrey, on 14th May 1955.
Ross’s daughter Frances Maude was born in Montevideo in 1882 and returned to England with the family in 1890. She was educated in England and census records show that she was visiting a cousin, Marion Radford, in Buckland Monarchorum in Devon, in 1901. Her grandfather (Richard Steele Pinsent’s) children seem to have kept in close contact in the late 1800s and early 1900s and their descendants are pretty close today. Interestingly, Buckland is very close to Horrabridge, where the aforementioned Guy Pinsent’s family lived after the “First World War”. Guy’s brother was Francis Wingfield Homfray Pinsent – a land valuer who then worked in Plymouth.
Eight years later (1909), Frances and her brother, Gerald , were caught in a snowstorm on the Matterhorn while vacationing in Switzerland. They were with a group of tourists who were forced to shelter in a hut until rescued by a search party from Zermatt. “The hut was full of ice”, Miss Pinsent said, but they “made a little fire” and escaped unharmed, “save for a few frozen fingers and toes” (Leeds Mercury: Monday 23rd August 1909). Frances was extremely fortunate that she was not seriously injured as she was to become an accomplished musician and music teacher.
Frances was taught by Professor Xavier Scharwenka (“Professor and Pianist to the Court of Prussia”), Carlo Albanesi and others and was a “Sub-Professor” at the “Royal Academy of Music” before she took over the teaching role of a Miss Newton, who had given music lessons in small communities (Aylesbury, Beaconsfield, High Wycombe etc.) around London.
Frances lived with her parents in “Maresfield Gardens, Hampstead” until 1914; she then moved into a flat with her brother Gerald Hume Saverie at “265a Portsdown Road, London”. He was an “Assistant” to the “Prime Minister” at “#10 Downing Street” at the time; however, he soon left to join the army. She stayed on until around 1919 (London Electoral Registers: 1847 – 1965). Frances gave lessons in pianoforte, singing and harmony and prepared students for their L.R.A.M. and A.R.C.M. examinations (Bucks Herald: 30th September 1911). It was a role she performed with considerable success. The local papers frequently refer to her student’s successes: “in the recent school examinations of the Associated Board of the Royal Academy of Music and Royal College of Music, Elsie Grange, a pupil of Miss F. M. Pinsent passed the intermediate stage” (Bucks Herald: 11th May 1912).
Frances Maude’s ability was recognized in 1913, when we find that: “At the meeting of the Directors of the Royal Academy of Music held recently, Miss Francis M. Pinsent, L.R.A.M., was unanimously elected as Association of the Institute (A.R.A.M.) in recognition of her teaching. This is an honorary distinction, not obtained by examination, which is sometimes conferred on past students who have distinguished themselves” (Bucks Advertiser and Aylesbury News: Saturday 8th November 1913). The following week she placed an advertisement in the same newspaper stating that she could be contacted at 256a Portsdown Road in London … and that she was prepared to visit Aylesbury, Risborough, Beaconsfield, Wendover and High Wycombe to give lesson in pianoforte, singing etc. Her various students passed their exams and she had considerable success developing a local girls’ choir. It won first prize at an annual competition organized by the “Social Institutes Union” in London several years in a row (Bucks Herald: 27th May 1916).
One of her choirs was quite exceptional: “Miss Pinsent’s Singing Class: At a competition held in London last week, Miss Pinsent’s Singing Class gained the cup for singing 3-part unaccompanied glees, with full marks (100). The chief adjudicator remarked that he would have to exhaust his vocabulary of adjectives to describe the excellence and perfection of their performance. In the duets and solos competitions, Miss Pinsent’s pupils came out second (in duets) and third (in solos) and gained two 1st class certificates (over 90 marks) and three 2nd class certificates (over 80 marks)” Bucks Advertiser & Aylesbury News: Saturday 9th May 1914.
Frances Maude never married. She largely drops out of sight in the 1920s after becoming a “sister in religion.” According to the 1921 census, she was one of 33 nuns, most of whom came from France, Spain or Portugal, who ran a “Club for poor little girls” through “Lealix, Convent of the Sacred Heart in Hertford.”
When the wartime Register was taken in 1939, she was at “Kingswood Lodge of the Convent of the Handmaiden, on Cooper’s Hill, in Englefield Green, in Surrey” -and she died there in 1953. Sofia Altuna probated her estate, which amounted to £1,583 (England and Wales National Probate Calendar: 1858-1966: Ancestry.com).
Family Tree
GRANDPARENTS
Grandfather: Thomas Pinsent: 1782 – 1872
Grandmother: Mary Savery: 1780 – 1859
PARENTS
Father: Richard Steele Pinsent: 1820 – 1864
Mother: Catherine Agnes Ross: 1830 – 1906
FATHER’S SIBLINGS (AUNTS, UNCLES)
John Ball Pinsent: 1819 – 1901
Savery Pinsent: 1815 – 1886
Mary Savery Pinsent: 1806 – 1884
Thomas Pinsent: 1807 – 1826
Anna Pinsent: 1809 – xxxx
Elizabeth Savery Pinsent: 1811 – xxxx
Sarah Savery Pinsent: 1812 – 1813
Sarah Pinsent: 1817 – 1847
Emma Pinsent: 1823 – 1831
MALE SIBLINGS (BROTHERS)
Richard Alfred Pinsent: 1852 – 1948
Hume Chancellor Pinsent: 1857 – 1920
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