Vital Statistics
Thomas Henry Pinsent: 1873 – 1910 GRO0848 (Warehouseman, London, Middlesex)
Bessie Ada Penn: 1872 – 1964
Married: 1892: Shoreditch, London, Middlesex
Children by Bessie Ada Penn:
Jessie Harriet Pinsent: 1893 – 1898
Thomas William Pinsent: 1895 – 1974 (Married (1) Florence Perkins, 1916, London, Middlesex; (2) Eleanor Mabel Eileen Littlefield, Pitsea, Essex, 1953)
Joseph James Pinsent: 1897 – 1923
Bessie Louisa Pinsent: 1900 – 1902
Alfred Pinsent: 1902 – 1977 (Married Annie Henrietta Brightman, London, Middlesex, 1930)
James Valentine Pinsent: 1908 – 1908
Family Branch: Tiverton
PinsentID: GRO0848
Click here to view close family members.
Thomas Henry was the fourth eldest of five surviving son of James Pinsent by his wife Sarah (née Savage). He was born in London, where his father was a “greengrocer” and “fruiterer.” He grew up in Holborn and then Hackney, in north London after his family moved there in around 1878. Nevertheless, he spent his teenage years in Islington (which is about half way between Hackney and Holborn) – after his parents settled on Woodville Road in that parish in early 1880s. Thomas eventually had four sisters as well as his three brothers. It was a large family; however, not all the children survived.
The British Government made schooling compulsory in 1880 and Thomas Henry went to an elementary school in “Chatham Gardens” in Hackney, before being sent to “Church Street Temporary School for Boys” in 1881 – when he was six years old. His sister, Martha Elizabeth signed on at the nearby “Girls’ School” at about the same time and their younger sister, Georgina Frances, joined them in 1883. It was normal practice to send children of both sexes to school until they were about twelve years old, when they were expected to leave school to find work. All three children were “scholars” living on Witchampton Street in St. Leonard’s parish, in Hackney, when the 1881 census was taken.
Thomas Henry Pinsent was a “packer” and “warehouseman” working for the “Wesleyan Methodist Society” when he joined the “2nd London Rifles” in August 1888. It was a “Territorial Army” unit, so he retained his job with the Society and he was a “book-makers’ porter” still living with his parents on Woodville Road in Islington when the census takers returned, in 1891.
Thomas moved out the following year and he was living in Hutley Place in Shoreditch when he married Bessie Ada Penn, the daughter of a deceased “policeman”, in Hoxton, in October 1892. They had four sons and two daughters between 1893 and 1908. Sadly, all the girls died young and only three of the boys (Thomas William, Joseph James and Alfred Pinsent) grew to maturity. Thomas and Bessie moved to Norway Street in the mid-1890s and the census takers found them there with their remaining three children in 1901. It was an apartment consisting of two, unfurnished, second floor rooms (London, England, Electoral Register: 1904).
The three boys were baptized in St. Luke’s Church in Finsbury on 5th September 1905 (London, England, Church of England Births and Baptisms: 1894 – 1916). Arthur (the youngest) was admitted to the “Gopsall Street School” in Hackney on the same date (15th April 1907) as his cousin Violet Pinsent, and his stay probably overlapped with that of another cousin, Bertram Horace Pinsent. The families clearly kept in touch and knew each other.
Thomas appears to have maintained his attachment to the “2nd London Rifles” until 1908, when (at age 36 years and 7 months) he transferred to the “6th Battalion of the City of London Rifles.” This was a regular army unit. He signed on for two years and he was sent to Salisbury in August 1908 for training. He served his time with the unit and was discharged in April 1910. He returned to his wife and family who were, by then, living on Frome Street and died there in October that year. Whether his time in the army contributed to his early death I do not know. He is listed among the records of the Chelsea Pensioner’s (1760 – 1913).
Bessie Ada (née Penn) was left with three teenage sons (Thomas William (16), Joseph James (13) and Alfred Pinsent (8)) to care for after her husband died. The family was living with a boarder in three rooms on Frome Street, in Islington, when the census was taken in 1911. Thomas and Alfred were later married, moved out and had children, and their lives are discussed elsewhere. The 1921 census, meanwhile, shows that Bessie and Joseph were then living in Noel Street in London N 1. She was, “Mr. Humphrey’s robe and costume man” working at 24 Highbury Crescent in London and Joseph was a “carpet designer” working for “H. M. Southwell Limited, Carpet Manufacturers” of Great Marlborough Street in Central London.
Joseph James Pinsent had signed on as a private [#410758] in the “6th(Queen’s) Royal West Surrey Regiment” in October 1914 and been sent to France in June 1915. He was reported wounded in August 1916 (Islington Gazette: 29th August 1916), and his service records show that he reported sick for a couple of days in November that year and received treatment for gout in his legs the following year. On that occasion, he was sent to “#11 Clearing Station” and forwarded to a “sick convoy”in August 1917. He was under treatment for 139 days – which must have been a welcome break from the font line (British Armed Forces: First World War Soldier’s Medical Records: Findmypast). Joseph James Pinsent survived active service. He returned and was discharged from the army in March 1919. He was awarded the Victory, British and 1915 Star Medals for his service (British Army WWI Medal Rolls Index Cards: 1914-1920). On his return, Joseph became a “carpet pattern designer.” However, he hardly had time to settled down, he died in Islington in 1923. He never married.
Family Tree
GRANDPARENTS
Grandfather: Benjamin Pinsent: 1808 – xxxx
Grandmother: Myra Burgoyne: 1815 – 1869
PARENTS
Father: James Pinsent: 1837 – 1912
Mother: Sarah Savage: 1839 – 1914
FATHER’S SIBLINGS (AUNTS, UNCLES)
Samuel Benjamin Pinsent: 1833 – xxxx
Joseph Pinsent: 1840 – 1841
Esther Pinsent: 1843 – xxxx
Edward Brand Pinsent: 1845 – 1846
George Henry Pinsent: 1847 – 1849
John Pinsent: 1850 – 1856
Elizabeth Pinsent: 1853 – 1853
MALE SIBLINGS (BROTHERS)
George James Pinsent: 1859 – 1860
James Walter Pinsent: 1861 – 1948
Joseph Benjamin Pinsent: 1865 – 1897
William John Pinsent: 1869 – 1918
Albert Hibbard Pinsent: 1878 – 1878
Edward Charles Pinsent: 1878 – 1878
George Hibbard Pinsent: 1879 – 1953
Alexander Sidney Pinsent: 1884 – 1911
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.