Vital Statistics
Charles Alfred Pinsent: 1905 – 1961 GRO0128
Mary Beirne: 1909 – 1992
Married: 1935: Fulham, London
Children by Mary Beirne:
Son (GRO0132)
Daughter (GRO0676)
Daughter (GRO0489)
Daughter (GRO0058)
Family Branch: Devonport
Family Summary: Devonport
PinsentID: GRO0128
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Charles Alfred was Alfred Charles Pinsent’s second son by his wife, Mabel Winifred (née Davis). He was born in Walthamstow, in Essex in 1905. He joined joined the Territorial Army when he was eighteen years old. It was for a three year term under its “Voluntary and Direct Enlistment Programme”. He then enlisted as a Private (Regt. No. 6135760) in the “East Surrey Regiment.” At that time, in April 1922, he was 5 ft. 7 ¾ in. tall, he weighed 128 lbs., had a pale complexion, brown hair and hazel eyes. His chest measurement was 34 in. with 2 in. of expansion. Somehow, he had managed to acquire an identifying scar above his right knee (findmypast.com.). On the completion of his three year term, Charles stayed on in the Regular Army and had been promoted to Lance Sergeant by the time he returned from Gibraltar on the “Pacific and Orient” ship, “Naldera”, in October 1928. He was probably on his way back from India, where the “East Surrey Regiment” had been stationed for the past two years.
Charles was attached to “D” Company of the 5th Battalion, the Territorial Unit of the East Surrey Regiment from 1932 until 1935, when he left to rejoin the 2nd Battalion at Shorncliffe. The Territorials put on a parting dinner for him in January 1935 (Sutton and Epsom Advertiser: Thursday 24th January 1935). Charles evident found time to marry Mary Beirne, the daughter of a “farmer”, in St. Augustine’s Roman Catholic Church in Fulham later that year.
Given his military experience, Charles had risen to the rank of “Company Sergeant Major” in the “1st Battalion of the East Surrey Regiment” by the time it arrived in France with the “British Expeditionary Force” in September 1939. He was listed as a “casualty” on 23rd May 1940 – only a week or so before the battalion was taken off the beach at Dunkirk, on 2nd June (British Army Casualty List: findmypast.com.). The nature of his injury is not stated; however, he seems to have recovered enough to rejoin the Regiment. The First Battalion took part in the “Torch Landings” in North Africa and then fought its way up the Italian peninsula; however, it is possible that his injury precluded further active service. He may have stayed home as his third child was born while the battalion was in Italy.
Charles and Mary had one son and three daughters. Charles had left the army and joined the “police force”. He was a “Police Constable” when his youngest daughter was born in 1946. Charles was a 56-years old “Police Sergeant with the War Department” when he died in Shoeburyness, near Southend-On-Sea in 1961. He was buried in Saint Andrew’s churchyard in Shoeburyness. His estate was valued at £1,051 and administration was granted to this widow, Mary, who stayed on in Essex. She died there in 1992. She was buried with her husband.
All four of Charles’s children grew up and married in the 1960s and 1970s. They are probably still alive today and their lives are not discussed.
Family Tree
GRANDPARENTS
Grandfather: Alfred Pinsent: 1848 – 1919
Grandmother: Matilda Churched: 1844 – 1888
PARENTS
Father: Alfred Charles Pinsent: 1877 – 1948
Mother: Mabel Winifred Davis: 1882 – 1949
FATHER’S SIBLINGS (AUNTS, UNCLES)
William C. “Pinsent”: 1866 – xxxx
Mary Caroline Pinsent: 1870 – 1945
Matilda Pinsent: 1873 – 1873
Amelia Elizabeth Pinsent: 1875 – xxxx
MALE SIBLINGS (BROTHERS)
Stanley Arthur Pinsent: 1903 – 1985
Harold William Pinsent: 1910 – 1967
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