Vital Statistics
Alfred John Pinsent: 1869 – 1939 GRO0027 (Printer and Compositor, Torquay, Devon)
Rosina Train: 1865 – 1947
Married: 1893: Epping, Essex
Children by Rosina Train:
Vera Effie Pinsent: 1895 – 1895
John Thomas Pinsent: 1896 – 1958 (Married Annie Violet Keenor, Newton Abbot, Devon, 1921)
Robert Cecil Pinsent: 1898 – 1920
Amy Rose Pinsent: 1900 – 1973 (Married Theodore William Henry Veale, Dartmouth, Devon, 1920)
Margery Rosina Pinsent: 1907 – 1998
Family Branch: Bristol
PinsentID: GRO0027
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Alfred John Pinsent was the eldest son of Thomas Pinsent by his wife, Mary Ann (née Gilley). He was born in Chudleigh and was brought up in Torquay and Paignton on the south coast of Devon. He had a brother (Frederick William Pinsent) who became a sailor and died in 1912 without having married or had children. Another brother (William Thomas Pinsent) died in infancy.
Alfred John’s father Thomas was a “compositor and printer” who moved to the Torbay area (which includes Torquay and Paignton) while it was still growing into a holiday destination for inland Britons desperate to escape the smoke of the industrial revolution. He grew up there, and followed his father into the printing business. The census records show that Alfred’s family lived on Hill Park Terrace in Paignton in 1891, and Thomas was affluent enough to have a “cook”, Anne Train and her daughter, Rosina, who was a “dressmaker” in residence. Rosina was slightly older than Alfred. Having a cook in the house may have enabled Alfred’s mother, Mary Ann, to return to her original trade as a “dressmaker”. Perhaps she worked with Rosina.
Alfred and Rosina married in Parndon Parish Church, near Epping, in Essex on 28th August 1893. Why they married there and not in Paignton, I do not know. However, coincidentally or otherwise, there were other Pinsents living in Essex at that time. Alfred and Rosina’s first child, Vera Effie Pinsent arrived the following March but died a few months later. Alfred’s mother, Mary Ann, died in Torquay in 1895 and her widowed husband went to live with Alfred and Rosina and their, by then, growing family. They lived at Rosemont, Ellacombe, in Torquay.
Alfred and Rosina had five children (two sons – John and Robert and three daughters – Vera, Amy and Margery). All but Vera grew to maturity. Perhaps they were particularly fretful children as Rosina applied for a “U.S. Patent” for an “improved baby soother” on 22nd November 1905. It was issued the following June (U.S. Patent Trademark Office Patents (1790-1909): Ancestry.com)! Whether she made any money on the venture, I do not know.
The family had Methodist leanings, so the children (Amy, “Jack”, Maude Lymin (sic) and Robert) attended the local “Primitive Methodist” Sunday School in (Torquay Times and South Devon Advertiser: Friday 20th April 1906). I do not know why the school records later refer to Maude and not Margery. Nevertheless, it was Margery Pinsent who won an award for attendance at Ellacombe School in 1913 (Torquay Directory and South Devon Journal: 15th April 1914).
The family was still living at Rosemont in 1911. The census that year shows that both Alfred and his father were “letter press printers” and they were living with Rosina and her children. Her eldest son, John Pinsent was fourteen years old and referred to as a “plumber.” He had, presumably, recently left school. His brother, Robert and sister Amy were still scholars. Margery was too young for school. Alfred’s father, Thomas Pinsent, died in Torquay in 1917.
Alfred John and Rosina’s younger son Robert Cecil Pinsent had, by then, already signed on for service during the “First World War”. His “Short Term Attestation Papers” (Ancestry.com), which he signed in Cork in January 1916, show that he was a single, nineteen years-old, “proficient cabinet maker.” He was assigned to the “Royal Engineers” as a “Sapper” (Regimental #143955) and served in several locations in the United Kingdom before being discharged from the “488th Field Company” for reason of “sickness” on 15th May 1918. Perhaps he was an early victim of the influenza pandemic that was just getting underway. There is nothing to suggest that he was ever sent overseas.
Robert was eligible for a pension but died on 2nd April 1920 so hardly had time to enjoy it. The “War Graves Commission” notes that he was buried in the “Military Section” of Torquay Cemetery. He was twenty-two years old and still unmarried. His elder brother, John Thomas Pinsent also signed up. However, his life is described elsewhere.
Alfred and Rosina were still living at #3 Rosemount at the time of the 1921 census. He was a “compositor” for the “Torquay Times” by then. Rosina had household duties to attend to, and her children John and Margery presumably helped out. John was a “Electrician” who worked for “W. Lawrence,” however, he was at that time “out of work.” Margery was still in “school, whole time.”
Alfred later worked as a “compositor” for the paper’s owners, the “Devonshire Press,” and he represented the company at the funeral of a long-time employee, Mr. T. H. Sullivan, in June 1935 (Torquay Times and South Devon Advertiser: Friday 15th June 1935). The war-time register shows that he was living with his wife and their younger daughter Margery – both of whom were assigned to “domestic duties” – at Rosemont, on Market Street in Torquay four years later. It must have been a large house as the household included two lodgers, Vera Guise, a “commercial traveller” and Winifred Jennings, a “shop assistant in a restaurant”.
Alfred John Pinsent collapsed and died after arriving for work at the “Torquay Publishing Company” on 20th October 1939. He had been employed by the company for twenty years, the last ten as a works “foreman.” He was buried at Holy Trinity Church. Alfred was, apparently, a well-known member of a band that played at the “Torquay Recreation Ground” during the Rugby Season (Torbay Express and South Devon Echo: Friday 20th October 1939). His daughters Amy Rose Pinsent and Margery Rosina Pinsent (“Mardie”) and his daughter in law, Annie (John Thomas’s wife – Annie Violet (née Keenor)) were there for his funeral but his son John and his son-in-law Theo (Amy Rose’s husband – Theodore William Henry Veale) were absent – away serving in the armed forces. His wife, Rosina, felt unable to attend (Torbay Express and South Devon Echo: Wednesday 25th October 1939).
Rosina stayed on in the family home at Rosemont, in Torquay and died there, quite suddenly, in August 1947 (Torquay Times and South Devon Advertiser: Friday 8th August 1947). Her daughter, Margery, who had successfully taken a “St. John’s Ambulance” First Aid Course in 1929 (Torquay Times and South Devon Advertiser: Friday 19th April 1929), stayed with her until she (Rosina) died. Margery never married but worked as a “telephonist.“ On her retirement from the General Post Office in 1968, she was awarded the “Imperial Service Medal”(London Gazette: 21st June 1968). She died in Hertford and Ware in November 1998.
Family Tree
GRANDPARENTS
Grandfather: Abraham Pinsent: 1787 – 1871
Grandmother: Anne Pinsent: 1795 – 1870
PARENTS
Father: Thomas Pinsent: 1834 – 1917
Mother: Mary Ann Gilley: 1839 – 1895
FATHER’S SIBLINGS (AUNTS, UNCLES)
Joseph Cook Pinsent: 1832 – xxxx
MALE SIBLINGS (BROTHERS)
William Thomas Pinsent: 1870 – 1871
Frederick William Pinsent: 1872 – 1912
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