Vital Statistics
Charles Douglas Pinsent: 1919 – 1953 GRO1164 (Lawyer, St. John’s, Newfoundland)
Madeline Waterman: 1922 – 1996
Married: 1948: Seattle, Washington, U.S.A.
Children by Madeline Waterman:
Kenneth Douglas Pinsent: 1953 – 1984 (Lawyer; Married Wife (GRO1381), San Mateo, California, 1976)
Family Branch: Hennock
PinsentID: GRO1164
Click here to view close relatives.
Charles Douglas was the only son of Earl Speare Pinsent and Augusta Beatrix (née Dickinson). He was born in St. John’s Newfoundland, and attended “Bishop Feild (sic) College” – where he developed a passion for ice-hockey and other sports. On leaving school, he went to “King’s College” in Windsor, Nova Scotia. The College had been affiliated with “Dalhousie University,” in Halifax, since a fire had destroyed much of its own infrastructure in 1920. Charles Douglas (“Douglas” or “Doug” Pinsent) studied law and, in October 1937, returned to St. John’s to article under his father. He was called to the bar in St. John’s in October 1943 (Daily News: 19th May 1953). Father and son practiced law together under the title of “Pinsent and Pinsent, Solicitors” of Royal Bank Chambers, Water Street, St. John’s. The partnership was later expanded to include Mr. W. G. Adams; however, the firm of “Pinsent, Pinsent and Adams” (Daily News: 15th April 1953) only lasted for about a month as Douglas died young. His father and Mr. Adams carried on.
“Mr. Douglas Pinsent” became engaged to Olive Drew in Calgary in December 1943 (Calgary Herald: Thursday 16th December 1943) and they, evidently, planned to marry in St. John’s on 4th January 1944; however, there is nothing to suggest that they did. They seem to have thought better of it. A letter that Douglas’s aunt Annie (nee March) wrote to by father and mother (Robert John Francis Homfray and Ruth McKechnie Pinsent) in 1946 implies that the marriage never took place. She refers to “Douglas who is not married yet – though he took several steps in that direction about a year ago.” When it came to it, Charles Douglas married Madeline Waterman in Seattle, in Washington State, in December 1948 (Washington, U.S., Marriage Records: Ancestry.com). What he had been doing out west or where he met her, I do not know! They had a single child, a son, Kenneth Pinsent, in April 1953.
Douglas was “Secretary of the St. John’s Progressive Conservative Party” and decidedly alarmed by post-war reports that the British Government hoped to push Newfoundland into confederation with Canada. Doug and his father were among “(T)he undersigned members of the Bar of Newfoundland” who signed a cable sent to the British Government insisting that the only choice that could be made for Newfoundland was between “Responsible Government” and “Commission Government,” and that only once that decision had been made and the financial implications been assessed, could confederation be considered (Western Star: Friday 13th February 1948). Despite this, “Confederation with Canada” was a third option placed on the “Confederation Referendum” when it was held and it was chosen. Newfoundland joined Canada on 31st 1949.
Doug ran as a “Tory” (Conservative) candidate in the Fortune-Hermitage riding when Newfoundland held its first provincial election two months later and – like many other “Tory” candidates – lost by a considerable margin to a well-known, and highly regarded “Liberal” opponent. The Conservatives election campaign seems to have been poorly managed! (“Canadians at Last: The Integration of Newfoundland as a Province”: by Raymond B. Blake, 1994) and Mr. Smallwood became the first “Premier” of Newfoundland and Labrador. It was he who was to join Douglas on the head table at a “Rotary Club” banquet given to honour the “President of the Rotary International” in 1950. Douglas was the “President of the St. John’s Lions Club” at the time. He attended with his wife, Madeleine.
Douglas was an all-round athlete. He had played on the “Feildians” inter-collegiate and Senior Hockey teams between 1934 and 1939, and for the St. John’s “Royals” from 1940 to 1948. He was president of the “St. John’s Hockey League” when he died, and was well known in St. John’s for promoting and developing a variety of sports in the province. He helped found the “Riverdale Tennis Club” and was a tireless member of the “Regatta Committee”. He was appointed president of the “Lions Club” and he was instrumental in getting the city a new ice-rink after their old one burnt down (Daily News: 19th May 1953). He wrote an article, entitled “Let’s Build a Stadium,” that was published in the October 1950 edition of “The Magazine of Newfoundland.” Two years earlier, the “National Film Board of Canada” had filmed him escorting Canada’s 1948 Olympic Figure Skating Champion Barbara Ann Scott as she laid the corner stone of the new stadium in June 1950. It can still be found on-line.
Douglas Pinsent died in May 1953 and Mr. F. M. O’Leary, the “President of the St. John’s Memorial Stadium Council” said “If I may digress for a moment – mention of the old St. John’s Stadium Company brings to our mind one of the members who played a very prominent part in the early efforts to provide a Stadium for St. John’s. I refer to the late Douglas Pinsent and the present Stadium Council would like to record its very deep regret on his passing and pay a tribute to a very fine sportsman and public spirited citizen” in a radio address (Daily News: Saturday 23rd May 1953).
The following year, the St. John’s Lion Club instituted an annual award or trophy, to the known as the “Douglas Pinsent Memorial Trophy.” It was to be awarded at the end of each season “to the player considered the most gentlemanly while being most valuable to his team”. The winner will be selected by a committee consisting of the coaches of city teams who will submit names to a trio of selectors – a member of the Lion’s Club, a member of the hockey executive and a member of the referees board” (Daily News 18th January 1954). The “Doug Pinsent, Memorial Trophy” was still being awarded in 1963 (Daily News: 31st May 1963).
Mrs. Douglas Pinsent and Mrs. Art Hamlyn, “the wives of former hockey stars who have departed,” were invited to attend the Ceremony that accompanied the opening of the 1955 hockey season in St. John’s new arena and Madeleine was asked to make the first drop of the puck. The match was (appropriately enough) between the “Feildians” and “St. Bon’s” teams (Daily News: dated 18th January 1955). John M. Tobin, another hockey stalwart in St. John’s died in 1956 and the Daily News (10th October 1956) noted that he, “along with the late Doug Pinsent, helped in no uncertain way to keep hockey alive in St. John’s when our arena was burnt down”.
Douglas and Madeline’s son, Kenneth Douglas Pinsent was born in April 1953, a matter of weeks before his father died. So, sadly, Kenneth, never got to know his father. Madeleine was left with a very young child to rear. She became “Secretary-Treasurer” of the “St. John’s Planning Association” and was called upon to present a report at its annual general meeting (Daily News: 31st May 1955). She was also “Secretary-Treasurer” of the “Community Planning Association of Canada” (Daily News: 15th June 1956) – which seems to have been a full-time job.
The City was growing and Madeleine was responsible for notifying the public of changes in the regulations regarding traffic flow in St. John’s. The changes could be substantial and some of the notifications came with maps as well as explanations (Daily News: 24th August 1956). The changes may not always have been appreciated by motorist or pedestrian. However, they doubtless appreciated having the snow cleared (Daily News: 19th February 1959).
Madeline was an American by birth, however, her mother lived in Vernon in British Columbia and she moved there in 1959. Three years later, she moved down to Los Gatos, in California; where she worked for “IBM” for twenty-five years before retiring at the end of March 1987 (Correspondence with R. J. F. H. Pinsent).
Her son Kenneth Douglas Pinsent was educated at “Los Gatos High School”, in Santa Clara, California (U.S. School Books: MyHeritage.com). He trained as a lawyer and both he and his wife to be appear to have been working for the firm of “Boston, Petrini & Conron” in 1982 (Bakersfield, California, City Directory: 1982). Kenneth married Wife (GRO1381) in May 1973. However, I am not aware of them having had children.
Kenneth was a junior partner when killed in a motorcycle accident two years later. He was 31 years old. Kenneth was buried at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Los Gatos.
According to Madeline, his widow (Julie) remarried in Missouri in 1987. However, she seems to have been back living in Bakersfield, California in 1991. Madeline died in Los Gatos in March 1996.
Family Tree
Grandparents
Grandfather: Charles Speare Pinsent: 1838 – 1914
Grandmother: Blanche Brown: 1850 – 1918
Parents
Father: Earl Speare Pinsent: 1887 – 1958
Mother: Augusta Beatrix Dickinson: 1885 – 1937
Father’s Siblings (Aunts, Uncles)
Constance Douglas Pinsent: 1884 – 1927
Eleanor Vicars Pinsent: 1886 – 1898
Earl Speare Pinsent: 1887 – 1958 ✔️
Frances Isobel Pinsent: 1890 – 1987
Male Siblings (Brothers)
Charles Douglas Pinsent: 1919 – 1953 ✔️
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.