Vital Statistics
Gilbert Soudon Pinsent: 1889 – xxxx GRO0370 (Bank Clerk, Buenos Aires, Argentina)
Agnes Mabel Broome: 1890 – 1979
Married: 1914: Buenos Aires, Argentina
Children by Agnes Mabel Broome:
Mabel Sheila Pinsent: 1920 – xxxx
John Soudon Pinsent: 1916 – 1941
Family Branch: Hennock
PinsentID: GRO0370
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Gilbert Soudon was the only son of Gilbert Pinsent by his wife Clara (née Bridgman). The couple farmed at “Ware Barton” in Kingsteignton in the 1870s and had two daughters there. They then moved to “Scrope” Farm, near Hungerford in Berkshire, and it was there that their son Gilbert was born. Gilbert and Clara went to live in Newbury while he was still a young boy, so Gilbert Soudon was the first of his line to miss out on farm life. The census records show that the family lived at “Knapps House,” in Bloxford, in 1901. Boxford is four miles northwest of Newbury. It also tells us that Gilbert Soudon was “a farmer’s son,” which was true enough.
Gilbert Soudon Pinsent attended the“British School” in Newbury and was, by all accounts, a diligent student. He was listed among those boys who only missed two days of school in 1899. He missed one more the following year and was allowed to choose from a selection of prizes (Newbury Weekly News and General Advertiser: Thursday 18th May 1899 and Thursday 31st May 1900). Gilbert also did well in the locally held Trinity College Certificate examinations held in 1901 (Marlborough Times: 12th October 1901).
He was good at music and, in 1901, received a prize for his pianoforte playing: “The highest marks were gained by two candidates in the preparatory division, Theodora Reeve-Smith, aged 6, and Gilbert S. Pinsent, aged 12, tying with 88 marks each; the prize had consequently to be divided between them in accordance with the roles in the local prize regulations” (Newbury Weekly News and General Advertiser: Thursday 10th October 19o1).
Gilbert Soudon was away from home when the census takers called in 1911 and I cannot find him in the United Kingdom – quite possibly because he had gone out to Argentina. Gilbert Soudon was one of several Pinsents living in Buenos Aires before the First World War. He seems to have worked in a bank there. Whether they were aware of each other, I do not know but they may have.
One of the other Pinsents was also working in the banking sector. An item in The Times (20th April 1917) describes the contribution to the war effort made by the Buenos Aires-based staff of the “British Bank of South America Limited.” It lists fatalities but also goes on to mention the Military Cross awarded to Guy Homfray Pinsent. He returned to England to enlist in 1914. Gilbert and Guy are both from the HENNOCK branch of the family. Adolphus Ross Pinsent – who comes from the DEVONPORT branch of the family – was a Director of the “British Bank” and he had a son, Sidney Hume Pinsent who was an engineer living in Buenos Aires.
Gibert Soudon Pinsent married Agnes Mabel Broome, the daughter of a British engineer in Buenos Aires in November 1914 and they had a son, John Soudon Pinsent, in Argentina, in 1916. However, they returned to England for the birth of their second child, a daughter Mabel Sheila Pinsent in September 1920. Ship’s manifests show that they returned to Buenos Aires on “S.S. Halizones”, which left Liverpool on 23rd December. They traveled first class.
The family also returned to England on the “S.S. Highland Monarch” in June 1931. Gilbert and Agnes had their two children – John Soudon (aged 14) and Mabel Sheila (aged 10) with, and they probably intended to drop John off at school in England, as they returned to Buenos Aires on the same ship without him that.
Gilbert Soudon and his wife presumably died in Argentina; however, I have yet to find when or where. Mabel Sheila probably married out there too. She was certainly there in the 1950s, as “Mabel Sheila Pinsent de Luck” applied to the Brazilian Consulate in Buenos Aires for an immigration card and received in in August 1954.
John Soudon Pinsent was educated at “St. George’s College”, which is a private Anglican college at Quilmes in Argentina. He was one of several British Argentinians who signed on to fight for the allies during the Second World War. He returned to England and joined the Royal Air Force. He was assigned to “#233 Squadron”, which flew Lockheed Hudson light bombers out of Gibraltar. Sadly, his plane (AM634) was shot down over the Mediterranean in December 1941.
Exactly what happened to Flight Sergeant John Soudon Pinsent and his (three) crew-mates is unclear. Documents in the National Archives state that they were presumed to be shot down when they failed to return from a flight on 11th December 1941. The Argentine British Community Council Memorial website states that the plane went missing in action while attacking a German U-boat and the “Commonwealth War Graves Debt of Honour” site says that it was “shot down in error by a FAA Fulmar during a transit flight from Gibraltar to Malta”. Suffice it to say, he died in defense of Malta and his name appears on a plaque on the Valletta, Malta RAF Memorial. He never married.
Family Tree
Grandparents
Grandfather: John Pinsent: 1799 – 1858
Grandmother: Ann Brock: 1811 – 1866
Parents
Father: Gilbert Pinsent: 1840 – 1918
Mother: Clara Bridgman: 1851 – 1932
Father’s Siblings (Aunts, Uncles)
Anne Pinsent: 1833 – 1907
Martha Pinsent: 1834 – 1908
Eliza Pinsent: 1836 – 1837
John Pinsent: 1838 – 1916
Gilbert Pinsent: 1840 – 1918 ✔️
James Pinsent: 1842 – 1902
Henry Pinsent: 1844 – 1894
Albert Pinsent: 1846 – 1846
Emma Louisa Pinsent: 1848 – 1926
Mary Isabella Pinsent: 1850 – 1935
Harriet Carlotta Pinsent: 1853 – 1895
Male Siblings (Brothers)
Gilbert Soudon Pinsent: 1889 – xxxx ✔️
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