Vital Statistics
Harold William Pinsent: 1910 – 1967 GRO0393 (Construction business, Surbiton & Esher, Surrey)
1. Frances Mary English: 1916 – 2004
Married: 1936: Teddington, Middlesex
2. Mary Swain Robinson: 1919 – xxxx
Married: 1945: xxxx, Surrey
Children by Mary Swain Robinson:
Robert William Pinsent: 1948 – 2024
Daughter (GRO0822)
Family Branch: Devonport
Family Summary: Devonport
PinsentID: GRO0393
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Harold William Pinsent was the youngest of Alfred Charles Pinsent’s three sons by Mabel Winifred Pinsent (née Davis). He was born in 1910 and was brought up in Thames Ditton, in Surrey, with his brothers, Stanley Arthur Pinsent and Charles Alfred Pinsent and their sisters Winifred Mabel Pinsent, Gladys Pinsent, Rosetta Mary Pinsent and Eva Violet Pinsent.
Alfred Charles Pinsent was a “builder’s carpenter” by profession and Harold William followed him into the construction business. He became a “master plumber” and married Frances Mary English in Teddington, in Middlesex, in 1936. Before the war, the couple lived at “Long Leat”, on Common Road, in Esher.
As a boy in August 1921, Harold had been awarded the “Boy Scout’s” “Silver Medal” for saving another boy from drowning. He must have been a shy lad, as he is said to have slipped away afterwards without saying anything. I imagine he was mortified when his friends cheered loudly and carried him around, shoulder high, on the wheel of a truck at the presentation event held in his honour (Surrey Mirror: Friday 9th June 1922). Needless to say the press were on hand and his photograph duly appeared in the London Daily Chronicle (Friday 14th July 1922).
Harold was involved in another accident in November 1938. Unfortunately, this one led to the death a Mr. Green five months later. Harold had been driving a car at a “moderate speed” (according to a witness) and had swerved to avoid Mr. Green, who was an elderly pedestrian crossing the road at an angle. Unfortunately, Mr. Green seems to have been startled. He turned the wrong way and was hit by the car. He suffered a concussion and died of a cerebral hemorrhage several months later. The Coroner concluded that his death was related to the accident, but he returned an open verdict because there was insufficient evidence to show how the accident had actually happened (Surrey Advertiser: Wednesday 19th April 1939).
Harold was said to be a “building and heating engineer” when the Pre-War Register was compiled in 1939, However, he was also a “plumber”. There is no contradiction here, as many houses used water-filled radiators to keep them warm. Harold joined forces with his brother Stanley after the war and built the firms of “Pinsent, Bros, Plumbers” of #13 Ronelean Road, in Surbiton, and “Pinsent Bros Builders” – which had a site office at #102 Grierson Road, in Forest Hill, S.E. London by 1949. According to the Commercial Directories of the day, the brothers later merged the two firms to form “Pinsent, Bros. Limited, Builders & Contractors, Beaconsfield Road, Tolworth, Surbiton”. The latter firm also had premises in Queensmere Road, in Wimbledon in 1957. “Pinsent Bros.” relocated to 290 Elwell Road, Tolworth, in 1961 and it was still operating out of the same premises in 1974. The brothers were well located and their timing, of course, was impeccable – given the amount of rebuilding required in and around London in the aftermath of the War.
Harold’s marriage to Frances did survive the war. They divorced and Harold married Mary Swain Robinson in 1945. They had a son in 1948 and a daughter in 1951. Harold and Mary moved to 40 Guildford Avenue, in Surbiton the following year and thus it became the family home. It was a house that “Pinsent Bros.” had built. Harold, died in July 1967 and probate of his estate was granted in Lewes to Lloyds Bank Limited in November that year. It was valued at £22,967 (National Probate Calendar: Index to Wills and Administrations). Mary Swain Pinsent, stayed on there for a few years, after her husband died; however, she was living at Woodview, Oakhill Grove, in Surbiton when she wrote to my father in the 1970s.
Mary Swain (“Mollie”) Pinsent told my father that her brother-in-law Stanley’s son Dennis Pinsent had been working in the business with him. Presumably he took over the firm when his own father died in 1985.
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
Charles Alfred Pinsent: 1905 – 1961
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