Vital Statistics
Birth: 1877
Marriage: 1899
Spouse: Emily Caroline Readstone
Death: 1955
Family Branch: Bristol
PinsentID: GRO0869
References
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Wallace Pinsent was the eldest son of John Pinsent by his wife Ann Paddon. He was born in Bovey Tracey and grew up there with five sisters and two brothers. His father was an “agricultural labourer” from Ilsington who had worked in several parishes over the years and then found employment in Bovey Tracey, working in the (low-grade) coal and the clay pits associated with the local brick and pottery plants. Most of his immediate family seem to have been involved in the clay works in some form or other.
Wallace started out as a “brick-maker.” who worked out of his family’s home at “#16 South View” in Bovey Tracey until August 1899, when he married Emily Caroline Readstone, the daughter of a local gardener. The 1901 census shows them living with her parents at “#1 South View”. However, they moved to “#8 Moorside Cottage”, in Bovey Tracey sometime during the next decade and were there when by the census takers returned in 1911. Wallace was a “fireman at a pottery.” He was responsible for keeping the kiln fires alight – not putting them out! The couple lived there for eleven years. To the best of my knowledge, they never had any children.
Wallace appears to have played Rugby for Bovey Tracey in the early 1900s. For instance, he played against Buckfastleigh in September 1902 (Western Times: Saturday 20th December 1902), and against Totnes in November that same year (Brixham Western Guardian: Thursday 27th November 1902). However, unlike his rugby-playing “cousins” in the DEVONPORT Branch of the family, he played as a “forward” and not as a “back.” In a game against Brixham in 1903 we learn that “early in the second half, Pinsent, a Bovey forward was carried off the field with a broken leg” (Brixham Western Guardian: 24th December 1903): They played rough in those days …
Wallace and his brother Albert John seem to have occasionally played cricket for the Bovey Tracey 2nd XI. They were not always formally identified but it is worth noting that a newspaper reporter covering a match against “White, Chatton and Co.” (a firm of household furnishers in Torquay) in June 1901 said: “A special word of praise is due to A. Pinsent who captured 4 wickets for 7 runs, and brought off the hat trick. … The home team on going in looked like winning the match with very little difficulty, Staddon and Carpenter scoring at a great pace. … The only other batsman on the home side, with the exception of the two already named, to make any stand against Davey’s bowling was W. Pinsent who played very carefully for 10” (Torquay Times, and South Devon Advertiser: Friday 7th June 1901). Similarly, a tight game between Bovey and Moretonhampstead that was played in July 1903 ended in a tie – with both teams having reached 100 runs: “for the home side Pinsent obtained 34 runs” – or about at third of the total (Brixham Western Guardian: Thursday 16th July 1903).
Wallace kept playing throughout the summer months until at least 1912. He was in the Bovey 2nd XI team when it played “Highweek Church Institute” on 12th June 1909. According to the East and South Devon Advertiser (Saturday 12th June 1909) “Bovey having won the toss, batted first. W. Pinsent and Rev. Patch opened the innings, the former showing some lack of enterprise, allowing a lot of loose balls to go unpunished.” Oh, well. He had a better innings against Totnes a year later. He scored 17 runs, not out (Brixham Western Guardian: Thursday 1st September 1910).
Wallace and Albert had five sisters who lived at home and worked in the pottery. Three of them, Laura Ann, Ada and Lily Blanche managed to produce six illegitimate children between 1891 and 1907. However, they only had one surviving son apiece.
Wallace took part in a shooting match between the “Liberal Club” and local “Territorials” in March 1913 (South Devon Weekly Express: Friday 7th March 1913). He was representing the Liberal party but he may, by that time, have already have joined the Devonshire militia. His war-time Attestation papers show that he transferred his allegiance from the “Territorials” to the “Royal Devonshire Regiment” in January 1915.
He passed his preliminary examination and was considered fit for active duty. His papers show that he was 5 ft. 9 ½ in. tall, thirty-six years old and married. He had no criminal record. However, it must have become clear during basic training that Private Wallace Pinsent (#15249) either had had tuberculosis or had received some other form of lung damage. He was “discharged as not likely to become an efficient soldier under paragraph 392 iii [c.c.] Kings Regulations” on 7th June, 1915”. It probably did not help that he had worked around furnaces all his life. His brother Albert, meanwhile, joined the “Royal Garrison Artillery”.
Wallace went back to work in the brickyards. They would probably have been pleased to get him as labourers would have been hard to find with so many young men away on active service. Wallace was a “stoker in a pottery works” employed by “H. E. Jackson Co.” at it’s Mayville Pottery when the census takers made their rounds in 1921. Wallace and Emily were living at #8 Happaway Terrace in St. Marychurch parish in Torquay. A few years later, Mrs. E. Pinsent advertised: “Two double bedrooms and sitting room with attendance or board and lodge, terms moderate” for rent at the same location (South Gloucestershire Gazette: Saturday 23rd August 1927) in 1927.
Wallace and Emily were at “#29 Happaway Road” in St. Marychurch, Torquay when the England and Wales war-time register was compiled in 1939. Perhaps the street numbering had changed. Wallace was said to be a “glost plater, heavy worker.” (i.e. a kiln worker of some sort) and Emily was doing “paid housework” – and presumably unpaid housework as well.
The couple were still living in Torquay when Wallace died in January 1955. Probate of his estate was granted to his wife, Emily Caroline Pinsent, in March (England and Wales National Probate Calendar: Index of Wills and Administrations: 1858-1995. She died in Torquay in March 1958.
Family Tree
GRANDPARENTS
Grandfather: John Pinsent: 1823 – 1902
Grandmother: Elizabeth Loveys: 1817 – 1884
PARENTS
Father: John Pinsent: 1852 – 1917
Mother: Ann Paddon: 1849 – 1922
FATHER’S SIBLINGS (AUNTS, UNCLES)
Emily Pinsent: 1850 – 1857
John Pinsent: 1852 – 1917
Elizabeth Pinsent: 1854 – xxxx
Anne Pinsent: 1856 – 1857
Anne Pinsent: 1858 – xxxx
William Pinsent: 1860 – 1936
Laura Emily Pinsent: 1863 – 1868
Illegitimate: Jane Ann Mead Pinsent: 1845 – 1914
MALE SIBLINGS (BROTHERS)
Wallace Pinsent: 1877 – 1955
Albert John Pinsent: 1882 – 1928
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