Vital Statistics
Gerald Hume Saverie Pinsent: 1888 – 1976 GRO0365 (Civil Servant, London)
1. Katherine Kentisbeare Radford: 1884 – 1949
Married: 1915: London
Children by Katherine Kentisbeare Radford:
Chloe Pinsent: 1920 – 2013 (Married Ian Douglas Morton, 1949)
Audrey Jane Pinsent: 1925 – 2008 (Married Quentin Howieson Gibson, 1951)
2. Margot Von Bonin: 1887 – 1950
Married: 1939: London
3. Luba Schaposchnikoff: 1889 – 1979
Married: 1971: East Dereham
Family Branch: Devonport
PinsentID: GRO0365
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Gerald Hume Saverie was the third and youngest son of Adolphus Ross Pinsent by his wife Alice Mary (née Nuttall). He was born in Montevideo, Uruguay, in 1888. His parents returned in England in 1890 and Gerald and his brothers, Sidney Hume Pinsent and Cecil Ross Pinsent grew up in Hampstead in London. His father was a business man and company director who, initially at least, focused on South American.
Gerald’s elder brothers, Sidney Hume and Cecil Ross Pinsent, were educated at “Marlborough College” but Gerald was – for some reason or other – sent to another “Public” (private) school – The “King’s School Canterbury”. Perhaps it was because he received a “Junior Scholarship” there in 1903. Like so many of his family, Gerald was a talented mathematician. While at “King’s”, he edited the school paper, was “President of the Debating Society” and he was “Captain of School” in 1906/7 (King’s School Canterbury Register). I admit, that is a far better showing than I was able to achieved while there in the 1960s!
Gerald was awarded a major scholarship and moved on to “Trinity College” in Cambridge to study mathematics. He did well in the “Mathematical Tripos” examinations in 1907 and 1908 and was listed among the “Wranglers” when the results of his final exams were announced in June 1910. Where he came in the “Mathematical Tripos” ranking is not stated. Unlike in previous years, the results were released in alphabetic order that year – not by marks achieved (Birmingham Mail: Tuesday 14th June 1910). Gerald graduated from Cambridge with a B.A. and received an M.A. in 1914 (London Evening Standard: Monday 11th May 1914).
Gerald and his elder sister, Frances Maude Pinsent, had taken an ill-fated trip to Switzerland the previous summer and were fortunate to have survived. They found themselves among a group of tourists snowbound on the Matterhorn (Leeds Mercury: 23rd August 1909). Fortunately, they were rescued and (apparently) came away none the worse for the experience.
While at Cambridge, Gerald was a friend of Rupert Brooke, the poet – “If I should die, think only this of me; that there’s some corner of a foreign field that is forever England … ” . Rupert was, of course, just one of many of his generation killed on active service.
Gerald came first in the “Civil Service (Entrance) Examination” held in 1911 and, being a mathematician, was appointed to H. M. “Treasury”, although, one of his first assignments was at “No. 10 Downing Street” where he served as the “Prime Minister” (Herbert H. Asquith’s) private secretary (Belfast Weekly Telegraph: Saturday 29th November 1913). Only three of the 93 successful Civil Service candidates that year had Indian names and the colonial papers grumbled that only a few of the better candidates were likely to sign on for service in India (India: Friday 29th September 1911). Perhaps they were right.
The “P.M.O.” or “Prime Minister’s Office” – as it is now known – was far less sophisticated and well organized in the early 1900s than it would (or perhaps should) be today. In 1975, Gerald reminisced about his time there, and his observations were published in a book entitled “At Power’s Elbow: Aides to the Prime Minister from Robert Walpole to David Cameron” by Andrew Blick and George Jones (Biteback Publishing: 2013). Gerald (erroneously called “Giles” in the book!) describes how important Prime Ministerial patronage was to governance. He says he was frequently asked to assess the views of “parsons” being proposed to livings, and to review the lives of candidates (poets, artists, historians, scientists etc.) who might be eligible for “Civil List” pensions.
Gerald must also have written countless “brush-off” letters on behalf of the Prime Minister. One he wrote was to Lord Clinton. It was published in the Exeter and Plymouth Gazette on 10th February 1914 and informed his Lordship that the Prime Minister saw no need for the “Royal Commission into the Disposition of Land” that he proposed; and he strongly implied that the P.M. felt parliament was perfectly capable of dealing with matters of this kind on its own – thank you very much! Similarly, a few days later, the Derby Daily Telegraph (18th February 1914) released a letter that Gerald wrote on Asquith’s behalf to a delegation from the “Northern Men’s Federation for Women’s Suffrage.” After downplaying the Prime Minister’s inability to meet with them, Gerald pointed out that Mr. Asquith’s position on the subject was well known and he had nothing new to add. In neither case did the newspaper get Gerald’s name and initials right, but they were close enough! Gerald had made quite an impression on the “Prime Minister,” and he was invited to dinner at #10 Downing Street on 9th February 1914 (London Times: 10th February 1914) to be presented to His Majesty, King George V (London Times: 18th February 1914).
Gerald left Downing Street and took leave from the “Treasury” in November 1914 and obtained a commission in “His Majesty’s Armed Forces”. He joined the “Royal Garrison Artillery” as a “Second Lieutenant” and went to France the following February and was attached to “No. 2 Mountain Battery” when he married in December 1915 (Ilsington Gazette: 23rd Decembr 1915). Gerald was promoted to (temporary) “Lieutenant” and was mentioned in dispatches (London Gazette: 15th June 1916) in 1916; although I do not know what for, and he was officially “demobed” in 1919. He was awarded the “Victory” and “British Medals” and the “(1915) Star Medal” for his wartime service (British Army WWI Service Records).
After the war, Gerald Hume Saverie returned to the “Treasury” where he was “private secretary” to the Right Hon. Austen Chamberlain, M.P., the “Chancellor of the Exchequer” (London Times: 18th January 1919). A note placed in the “Pall Mall Gazette” informed its readers that Gerald, who had been ill for several weeks that spring returned to work in June (Wednesday 18th June 1919). Presumably he had lost his position with Mr. Chamberlain as he was transferred back to the “Treasury Department” (Westerham Herald: Saturday 9th August 1919).
Gerald was attached to several British delegations between the wars, including one sent to the “International Relief Union International Conference” in Geneva in 1927 (London Times: 6th July 1927). I gather nobody was prepared to speak at the first meeting and that the British Government “entertained grave doubts about the merits of the proposal” (Daily News: (London): Tuesday 5th July 1927). Gerald also attended the “Hague Conference on Economic Reparations” in Paris in 1929 (London Times: 16th December 1929).
The issue of German debt relief dragged on and, in July 1931, we find “financial experts representing Great Britain, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States met at the Treasury (this morning) to examine the outstanding questions regarding the methods of giving effect to President Hoover’s proposal for one year’s suspension of war debt and reparation payments.” They agreed that Sir Frederick Leith Ross should chair a meeting of Ministers on the matter, and that Mr. Pinsent and Mr. Peroine, should serve as “secretaries” (Civil & Military Gazette: (Lahore): Monday 20th July 1931).
On the domestic front; Gerald had the extreme misfortune to crash into the back of a stationary police car containing an officer of Scotland Yard’s “Flying Squad” that October! He was charged with driving “without due care and attention.” The officer; however, was forced to admit that his car’s rear light was not actually at the off-side but nearer the middle – which might have caused some confusion at night on a poorly lit street. Gerald, in his defense, said that he applied his brakes when he realized he was close to the police car – but by then it was too late. He was fined 20s and 10s 6d costs (Westminster and Pimlico News; Friday 30th October 1931).
Gerald, or “Jerry” as he was commonly known was loaned to “His Majesty’s Ambassador” in Berlin as a “financial adviser” in 1932 and he lived in Germany through to 1939 (Who’s Who: 1971-1980). While there, he watched the rise of Hitler and the “National Socialist Party” with growing concern. In the summer of 1934, Germany imposed import and currency controls on British businesses and Gerald was temporarily “recalled to London” – always a clear sign of annoyance at the host country – for meetings that were to lead to a high-level discussion on the “German debt problem” that September (Dundee Courier: 22nd September 1934).
Gerald had been one of Sir Frederick Leith Ross’s “private secretaries” at a conference convened in London in July that year to discuss President Hoover’s proposal to defer Germany’s (First World) war debt repayments for a year. The current financial crisis arose from the collapse of trade brought about by the “Great Depression” (Coventry Evening Telegraph: Friday 17th July 1934). The Germans argued that they could not possibly finance future trade if they were hamstrung by past debt (Coventry Evening Telegraph: Wednesday 19th September 1934). Perhaps they had a point.
Several of Gerald’s letters, reports and memoranda can be found in the “Public Record Office” at Kew. Paul N. Hehn, in his book “A Dishonest Decade: The Great Powers, Eastern Europe and the Economic Origins of World War II, 1930-1941”, notes that “Michael” (sic) Pinsent thought “it was probable … in actual fact that the economic recovery (seen in Germany between the wars) has been stimulated less by public works properly so-called than by special factors: viz: rearmament and the revival of the motor trade” (the removal of the tax on cars). Elsewhere, he states: “They have severely limited their own capacity to export by the armament program. Their desire for more raw materials is in fact created by their armament program, and not by the intention of raising the Germans standard of living”. Gerald was appointed a C.M.G. (“Companion of the Most Distinguished Order of St. Michael and St. George”) in June 1935 (The London Times: 3rd June 1935).
When the war with Germany finally came, Gerald was assigned to the “British Embassy” in Washington where he worked with the Americans, including their “Secretary of State” Hull and “Secretary” Morgenthau, to block the sale and/or transfer of German assets (Treasury Department: Inter Office Communication: May 20th 1940: FDRLibrary). He also helped Sir Frederick Phillips, the head of the “British Mission” to negotiate and then implement the “Lend-Lease Bill” (The London Times: and Coshocton Tribune 7th December 1940).
The “United States Congress” passed the bill in February/March 1941. It was a hastily designed agreement by which the Americans agreed to supply the British and other allies with materiel in support of the war effort. They did so in exchange for access to the allies military bases and for unspecified “future considerations”. It was left to Sir Frederick and the “Secretary of State”, Henry Morgenthau Jr. to work out the details. This was no easy task, as can be seen from Morgenthau’s diaries and other documents filed in the “National Archives” in Washington (and now available on line). For instance, when Gerald and a colleague suggested that a British company (“Courtalds”) would prefer to use its shares in its American affiliate (“Viscose”) as co-lateral for a loan, rather than sell them outright (Morgenthau Diaries: February 15th 1941) they received a testy response to the effect that Morgenthau felt that it would be politically impossible for him to “sell” the idea in “Congress”.
When the Americans asked Gerald why the British Government did not just requisition the shares and sell them, he pointed out that it was not British Government policy to take over public companies. Morgenthau revisited the issue at a staff meeting on 11th March (Morgenthau Diaries: March 11th 1941). After discussing Britain’s financial position and need for a bailout in considerable detail, Morgenthau insisted that “I cannot go on the Hill and try to explain on this appropriation bill why the English Government has not been able to sell one of its many hundreds of factories in this country. I can’t explain it.” He instructed his staff to tell the British that there would be no more negotiations until the British backed down. The Americans were determined to have their pound of British flesh. In his book “The Juggler: Franklin-Roosevelt as Wartime Statesman” Warren F. Kimball mentions a memorandum that “Joel Pinsent” (British Financial Counselor) sent to Acheson at the State Department on the 27th March, 1941. Why Gerald’s name gave so many writers so much trouble I am not sure!
In 1942, Gerald moved to Ottawa as “Chief of the British Food Mission” – an agency that purchased food from the “Canadian Government” and arranged for it to be shipped to England. He remained there until April 1943, when he returned home to be “Principal Assistant Secretary to the Board of Trade”. He was promoted to “Principal Secretary” the following year and took on the job of “Comptroller-General” of the “National Debt Office” from 1946 to 1951 (Who’s Who: 1971-1980). It must have been a particularly thankless task, given the state of the economy.
“Second Lieutenant” Gerald had married Katherine Kentisbeare (“Kitty”) Radford, the daughter of a “solicitor” and “Member of Parliament” (Sir George Heynes Radford), in London in December 1915, shortly after joining the Army. The Pinsent and Radford families had been well known to each other for quite some, time as Gerald’s aunt Edith Mary Pinsent had married John Heynes Radford in 1880. You can find more about the Radfords on-line at the ‘Radford Sister Project’. They were an artistic family and it is perhaps not surprising that Kitty performed in a comic play entitled “Christopher Walks” that entertained soldiers in the Winchester area in early 1916 (Hampshire Chronicle: 19th February 1916).
Gerald and Katherine’s elder daughter Chloe Pinsent was born in London in 1920. The census taken the following year shows that Gerald was a “Principal Clerk” employed by “H.M. Treasury” in Whitehall, S.W.1 and that he lived on Heathcote Street with his wife Katherine and their infant daughter, Chloe. They employed a young “domestic nurse and housemaid.” Gerald’s younger daughter, Audrey Jane Pinsent was to be born in Paris in 1925.
Katherine Radford’s family was from Devon and she lived in Exeter while her husband was abroad in the 1930s. Sadly, their marriage ended in divorce in 1938 – probably in part because of Gerald’s interest in Margot von Bonin. Katherine never remarried. She moved to a small house “suitable for a family of three and two kept servants” in Exeter (Exeter and Plymouth Gazette: 4th February 1938). and lived there with her daughter Audrey, who was still a schoolgirl. Katherine provided “Auxilliary Transport” during the war (1939 Register) and may have done other war-work under the title of “Mrs. Pinsent.”. Katherine was fined £1 for failing to “observe traffic signals” on one occasion in 1945 while living on Magdelene Road, in Exeter (Torbay Express and South Devon Echo: Wednesday 10th October 1945). She died in Exeter in March 1949 (Western Morning News: 25th March 1949).
Gerald’s elder daughter, Chloe, studied German at “Girton College” in Cambridge (Birmingham Daily Post: Monday 17th June 1940). She probated her mother’s estate when she died in 1949 and married Ian Douglas Morton, a New Zealander, the same year. They had three children in the 1950s. Chloe was a member of the “Institute of Linguistics” in 1978. She died in Harpenden, in 2013. Her younger sister, Audrey Jane, studied biochemistry at “Newnham College” in Cambridge and graduated with a B.A. degree in 1946, and with a Ph.D. in 1949. Audrey visited the United States in 1949; however, she was back in time to marry Quentin Howieson Gibson, a “medical practitioner” and “physiologist” in Sheffield, in 1951. They had four children and emigrated to the United States in the early 1960s. Audrey Jane lectured at “Pennsylvania University” and became a full “Professor at Cornell University” in 1966. She died in 2008 (Memorial Notice: Cornell University).
Gerald married Margot Von Bonin in April 1939. She was the daughter of George Von Bonin, a “Major” in the German army. She had formerly been the wife of a Wolfgang Muller Clemm. They married in the “Kensington Registry Office” on 26th April and a week later sailed for New York on the “Cunard White Star” liner, “Queen Mary.” Gerald was traveling on a diplomatic passport for the express purpose of joining the “British Diplomatic Mission” in Washington. They had no children.
The couple took a flight to Miami on 29th December 1941. Perhaps there was a diplomatic purpose to the trip, but Gerald paid for the tickets himself and it seems more likely that they were heading down to South America to see Gerald’s brother Sidney Hume Pinsent. The deeply suspicious officials in Miami describe Gerald as being 53 years old, 6 ft 1 in tall, of fair complexion, blue eyes and graying hair. They noticed that he had two damaged fingers on his left hand. One wonders if they were from frostbite or from damage received while on active service during the “First World War” (Index to Alien Arrivals by Airplane at Miami, Florida: 1930 – 1942: Ancestry.com).
Gerald returned home to England for a visit after his stint in Washington and then flew back to New York, en route to Ottawa, to take up his new position. He took an “American Export Air Lines” flight from Foynes, in Ireland to New York on 14th September 1942. The Immigration Officials in New York provide a similar physical description to that of their Miami counterparts. However, they also note that he was a married “Civil Servant” and helpfully add that he was “Chief of Food Mission of Ottawa” and then “in transit to Canada.” (New York Passenger Lists: 1820-1957: Ancestry.com).
Gerald and Margot returned to England in April 1943 and settled in Warwick Square, in London. “Jerry” resumed his work for the “Treasury”. He was made a “Companion of the Order of the Bath (Civil Division)” in 1949. I am sure it was well-earned! Gerald and Margot lived in London until July 1950, when Margot died. Gerald retired as “Secretary and Comptroller of the National Debt Office” the following year.
Gerald maintained his adventurous spirit in retirement. He joined a friend, Mr. Roger North of Rougham, in driving Mr. North’s completely rebuilt a 7 1/2 litre 1911 Mercedes 28/60 car to a Rally in Stuttgart in July 1962 (Lynn Advertiser: Tuesday 10th July 1962). It was an eventful journey of about 1,700 mile and the two of them gave the “Lynn and District Motor Club” a talk about it the following November. The Lynn Advertiser (Friday 9th November 1962) not only describes the talk but it provides a photograph of the car and drivers.
Gerald may have enjoyed driving, but he must have regretted a trip he took in November the following year as he was slightly injured in a two-car collision on the Gayton Road in Lynn (Lynn Advertiser: 12th November 1963). The collision occurred when Mrs. Mason, who was driving the other car, realized that she was about to collide with a car ahead of her that was slowing on a narrow road. She swung out into the oncoming lane and, presumably hit Gerald. She had her license endorsed for causing the crash (Lynn Advertiser: Friday 31st January 1964). There was no fault attributed to Gerald.
“Jerry” was involved in another collision later that year. This time, he was held responsible; his license was endorsed and he was fined £10 and ordered to pay another £10 in costs. The defending counsel said it was “a very unfortunate accident due to Mr. Pinsent putting a wrong interpretation on the signal he saw given by Mr. Harrowing.” He had assumed that the “bubble car” he saw ahead of him was trying to overtake a slower vehicle whereas it was slowing down in order to make a right turn. He had rear-ended the car and sent it, the driver, his wife, mother and year-old baby into a ditch. Fortunately, no-one seems to have been hurt. Gerald told the court: “that he had been driving fairly continuously since 1912 in England, the Continent, the U.S.A. and Canada” (Lynn Advertiser: 17th November 1964). Yes, he probably had. Nothing daunted, he and Mr. Roger North set out on yet another Rally drive in the rebuilt 1911 Mercedes the following May. This time it was closer to home. They drove from Lynn to Windermere, in the Lake District “without the slightest hitch” (Lynn Advertiser: Friday 25th June 1965).
Gerald Hume Saverie Pinsent of Narford Hall married for a third time in 1971. He married the widow of Sir Lionel Fletcher (Luba Schaposchnikoff) in East Dereham, in Norfolk and they lived in Saffron Walden until Gerald died, aged 87, in February 1976. His half-brother, Basil Hume Pinsent, who was a “solicitor”, probated his estate. He left an estate valued at £41,859 net (Herts and Essex Observer: Thursday 27th May 1976). Luba, or Lubov as she was, perhaps, more rightly known, had been born in Tanzania, which was then a German Colony. She did not acquire British Citizenship until June 1971 (HO/334/1486/19103). She died in London in January 1979.
Family Tree
GRANDPARENTS
Grandfather: Richard Steele Pinsent: 1820 – 1864
Grandmother: Catherine Agnes Ross: 1830 – 1906
PARENTS
Father: Adolphus Ross Pinsent: 1851 – 1929
Mother: Alice Mary Nuttall: 1855 – 1901
FATHER’S SIBLINGS (AUNTS, UNCLES)
Richard Alfred Pinsent: 1852 – 1948
Edith Mary Pinsent: 1853 – xxxx
Hume Chancellor Pinsent: 1857 – 1920
MALE SIBLINGS (BROTHERS, Half-Brothers)
Sidney Hume Pinsent: 1879 – 1969
Gerald Hume Saverie Pinsent: 1888 – 1976
Basil Hume Pinsent: 1911 – 2000
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