Vital Statistics
John Douglas Pinsent: 1872 – 1936 GRO0520 (Bank Manager, Portsmouth, Hampshire)
Mary Elizabeth Watts: 1886 – 1942
Married: 1906: Plymouth, Devon
Children By Mary Elizabeth Watts:
Leslie Grahame Pinsent: 1910 – 1988 (Civil Servant, Portsmouth; Married Edna Kate May Stuttard, 1934; Elsa Laura Christine Nellthorp, 1948)
Family Branch: Devonport
PinsentID: GRO0520
Reference
Click here to view close family members
John Douglas Pinsent was the eldest son of William Swain Pinsent by his wife Harriet Eliza (née Cookson). He was born in Newton Bushel (Highweek Parish) in what is now Newton Abbot in 1872 and lived at “Pool Park” in Highweek until the family moved to “Rose Hill”, a house on Mill Lane, in the early 1880s. He had two older sisters and one younger brother.
John was educated at “Newton College”, where we find him playing cricket for the “Second Eleven” in 1889 (Totnes Weekly Times: Saturday 1st June 1889) and “rugby football” for its “Second Fifteen” a few months later (Tiverton Gazette: Tuesday 26th November 1889). In those days “rugby football” was invariably referred to as “football”. John Douglas played more regularly for the “College” in 1890 (East and South Devon Advertiser: Saturday 25th October 1890). “Football” was a favoured sport in the family and John’s younger brother William Henry Pinsent in Newton Abbot played it to a high level. They both played “back” for their respective teams — a defensive position requiring speed, agility, an ability to kick the ball and to think and move fast. Interestingly, their cousin Robert Maye Pinsent played “back” for his Totnes team in the early 1900s.
John, or “Douglas” as he seems to have been known, moved to Axminster, in Somerset, in around 1891 and at first played rugby for the Wiveliscombe village team (Exeter and Plymouth Gazette: Monday 16th February 1891). However, Axminster formed its own club in 1893 (Chard and Ilminster News: Saturday 17th June 1893) and he transferred to it. The team played one of its first matches against Crewkerne – they lost but at least “some good play on the part of Pinsent, the Axminster back prevented the visitors from scoring for a time” (Pulman’s Weekly News and Advertiser: Tuesday 10th October 1893). He played another good match against Sidbury in December: “Eventually Pinsent, the captain of the Axminster team, from a pass by Gerrish, put in a splendid kick, sending the ball into touch in neutral ground … … Pinsent was a tower of strength at back and his long kicks told with effect on the visitors” (Pulman’s Weekly News and Advertiser: Tuesday 19th December 1893). Clearly he was a valuable player and he was re-appointed Captain the following year (Western Chronicle: Friday 15th June 1894). The Axminster XV played teams from Honiton, Chard, Yeovil and elsewhere as well as Crewekerne (Weymouth Telegram: Tuesday 16th January 1894).
The following year, he took time out to play at least one game for Newton Abbot— alongside his brother, William Henry Pinsent. It was against a team from Wellington in Somersetshire. The East and South Devon Advertiser (Saturday 16th November 1895) informed its readers that William Henry was joined by: “Douglas Pinsent his brother, who played for the first time for the season (and) worked well at three-quarters.” They could not both play “back”! This game was a return engagement for the brothers as William Henry had filled in on the Axminster team in a game against Chard Rovers in November 1893 (Chard and Ilminster News: Saturday 2nd December 1893). Just to complicate matters, John Douglas occasionally played for Chard. He played at “back” for them against Langport in October 1894 (Chard and Ilminster News: Saturday 3rd November 1894). They brothers seem to have played for the love of the game.
John Douglas was the “School Attendance Officer” in Axminster, and he not infrequently gave evidence in court “proving” the case against offending truants. In April 1893 he proved that two of Samuel Wiley’s children had only attended on 66 out of 114 days. Samuel was fined the princely sum of 2s 6d (Pulman’s Weekly News and Advertiser: Tuesday 18th April 1893). Perhaps he considered that a cost of doing business – it was cheaper than hiring a workman. Samuel was one of several who were repeat offenders (Pulman’s Weekly News and Advertiser: Tuesday 1st May 1894). Douglas (or his alter ego “George Pinsent”) ensured that Thomas House was fined for not sending his son to school (Pulman’s Weekly News and Advertiser: Tuesday 16th May 1893). He was another repeat offender. In the years that followed, the parents of several other children found themselves in court as well. Most just accepted the fine but one or two attempted to excuse their child’s absence. Abraham Newbury blamed it on the prevalence of measles in the district: “The schools had been closed, and since their re-opening he had not hurried his children to attend, as the disease was still prevalent: Fined 5s for each child” (Pulman’s Weekly News and Advertiser: Tuesday 11th December 1894). The following month Douglas was called to give evidence at “Axminster Petty Session.” A local lad had only attended school three days out of forty and the-powers-that-be were none too pleased! The magistrates fined the boy’s father 5s (Exeter and Plymouth Gazette: Wednesday 30th January 1895).
John had refereed a rugby match between a Combe St. Nicholas village team and an “Axminster Junior” team earlier that month (Taunton Courier and Western Advertiser: Wednesday 23rd January 1895). However, by then his time in Axminster was running out. In March, members of the “Football Club” met at the “New Commercial Hotel” to make a presentation to their captain, “Mr. J. D. Pinsent” who was leaving town. They gave him a “handsome oak liquor stand” inlaid with a silver plate bearing the inscription: “Presented to J. Douglas Pinsent, captain of the Axminster Football Club, by a few of his football friends, on his leaving Axminster, March 1895” (Exeter Flying Post: Saturday March 9th 1895).
John Douglas moved to Plymouth, where we find him boarding with a Mrs. Mary Bannerman at a lodging house near Plymouth Hoe at the time of the 1901 census. By then, he had become a “cashier” in a bank. While he was living in Plymouth, he seems to have met and married Mary Elizabeth Watts. The couple moved to Exeter and they had an infant son, Leslie Grahame Pinsent (1910 – 1988), when the census takers next came calling, in 1911. They were living on Blackall Road in St. Winifred’s parish. John was then a “cashier” for the “Wiltshire and Dorset Bank Limited”.
In 1916, we find J. D. Pinsent, Esq., putting several items of furniture in a house in Ashburton Road in Southsea, near Portsmouth in Hampshire, including: “brass and brass-mounted bedsteads, oak ditto, satin walnut bedroom suites, Chesterfield, settee, mahogany inlaid drawing room suite, upright iron-framed pianoforte in rosewood case, by Keman, fumed oak dining room appointments, oak writing desk, walnut hall stand, over-mantels, easy and occasional chairs, Axminster and other carpets, and linoleums, electroplate, china, glass, men’s bicycle, wringing machine, bassinette, and numerous other effects” up for auction (Portsmouth Evening News: Tuesday 8th February 1916). Why is not clear. It is quite possible that the house and its contents were an inheritance that had been passed down to his wife. There was some family connection, as John Douglas moved his family to Southsea shortly thereafter.
When his father William Swain Pinsent died in 1920, John Douglas Pinsent of “2, Southsea Terrace Southsea” was appointed an executor of his Will (Western Times: Monday 18th October 1920). He was also one of the principal beneficiaries and this may have helped when he move to “37 Auckland Road, East, Southsea, Portsmouth” shortly afterwards. According to Kelly’s Directory for Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, he was living there in 1925. It was to be his home for the rest of his life.
Mr. John Douglas Pinsent was a “retired bank official” when he died in Portsmouth in 1936. His Will was processed by a firm of solicitors (“Woollcombe, Watts and Scrivenor”) from Newton Abbot; either because he had residual interests there or, perhaps more likely, because the firm was somehow linked to Mary Elizabeth (née Watts), his widow. His Will was proved in the “Exeter District Registry of the Probate Division of His Majesty’s High Court of Justice”, and probate was granted to the executors, Gerald Douglas Woollcombe, Rosina Blanche Pittard and his son, Leslie Graham Pinsent. His estate was valued at £7,893 (net) (Portsmouth Evening News: Thursday 17th September 1936). His widow, Mary Elizabeth (née Watts) died in Portsmouth in 1942.
Family Tree
Grandparents
Grandfather: John Ball Pinsent: 1819 – 1901
Grandmother: Hannah Davie Swain: 1815 – 1887
Parents
Father: William Swain Pinsent: 1843 – 1920
Mother: Harriet Eliza Cookson: 1846 – 1892
Father’s Siblings (Aunts, Uncles)
Thomas Pinsent: 1842 – 1889
William Swain Pinsent: 1843 – 1920 ✔️
John Ball Pinsent: 1844 – 1890
Frederick Richard Steele Pinsent: 1855 – 1856
Male Siblings (Brothers)
John Douglas Pinsent: 1872 – 1936 ✔️
William Henry Pinsent: 1874 – 1949
Please use the above links to explore this branch of the family tree. The default “Next” and “Previous” links below may lead to other unrelated branches.