Vital Statistics
Richard Thomas Pinson: 1905 – 1966 GRO1927 (Butcher, Marrickville, New South Wales, Australia)
Beryl Vernie Wilkinson: 1910 – 1984
Married: 1931: Marrickville, New South Wales, Australia
Children by Beryl Vernie Wilkinson:
Son (GRO1980)
Elaine Pinson: xxxx – 2013
Family Branch: Bristol
PinsentID: GRO1927
Richard Thomas Pinson was the only son of William James Pinson by his wife, Florence Isabella (née Field). He was born in Sydney New South Wales in 1905. His father was a “compositor” for a “printer” who worked in the “Treasury Division of the State Government” in Sydney.
The Electoral Rolls show that Richard Thomas Pinson, who was a “warehouseman” while still young, was living with his mother on “Victoria Road” in Marrickville in 1930. His father was absent at the time; whether because he was working elsewhere or there was some tension in the family I do not know.
Richard Thomas married wife Beryl Vernie (née Wilkinson) the following year and they both lived with his mother. Beryl was a “dress-maker”. Richard’s sister, Alma Mary Pinson, was also living with them in the family home by 1930. She was a “clerk” whose husband (Reginald Jelfs) had recently died.
Richard and Beryl moved out shortly thereafter and Florence and Alma seem to have had the run of the “Victoria Road” house to themselves from 1934 onward. Richard and Beryl moved in with his father who was then living on “Edward Street” in Marrickville in 1936. Richard was a “butcher” who had probably learnt the trade from one of his uncles. Richard Alfred Pinson, Thomas Henry Pinson, Walter Pinson and Arthur Ernest Pinson were all “butchers” living in and around Sydney at the time. They had picked up the trade from their father. Why Richard Thomas’s father (William James Pinson) had gone in a different direction, I do not know. William had moved out and Richard and Beryl had the “Edward Street” house to themselves the following year (1937). However, William James returned they had moved next door to the old family home on “Victoria Road” by 1943. Richard’s father died in August 1945 and his widow, Florence died the following year (Sydney Morning Herald: Monday 8th July 1946).
Alma remarried in 1943, and she and her second husband, Eric John Dunn, stayed on in the family home after her parents passed away. It was not a happy marriage. Eric, who was a railway employee (Sydney Anglican Parish Records: 1814-2011: Ancestry.com) and a porter at the Central Railway Station and in 1946 and 1947 became abusive. Alma took to drink. When she died in 1949, her husband had in his possession a will from early on in their marriage that left much of her estate (estimated to be around £1,500) to him. What he did not know was that Alma, with Beryl’s assistance, had made out a new will leaving the bulk of her estate to Beryl’s two children. Eric challenged this will in the “Probate Court” on grounds of her alcoholism and lack of “testamentary capacity”. Predictably, there was a considerable amount of press interest when the case was heard in the Court!
Eric told the court that he had to get up at 3.30 a.m. to go to work and he went to bed early. His wife stayed up drinking. He claimed that on one occasion in 1948 she had nailed up the door and gone on a drinking spree – after which he had to pick up six empty brandy bottles. On another occasion, he said he found thirty-seven empty wine bottles lying around after she had been drinking for a week. He complained that he had to cook his own Christmas dinner (The Sydney Sun: Monday 1st May 1959)!
Clearly his life was intolerable … A Sergeant Law testified that he frequently saw Alma in hotel bars and wine saloons, and he remembered being called to the family home at one point in 1948 to find the fire department mopping up after Alma had placed her husband’s clothes on the floor of the lounge and set them on fire! He said that she was clearly “under the influence of liquor” when he spoke to her. However, she did not deny setting the clothes alight (The Sydney Sun: Tuesday 2nd May 1950).
It was left to Mrs. Beryl Pinson, Alma’s sister-in-law to explain why the marriage was so dysfunctional. She testified that Alma had frequently come to her with bruises on her arms and legs and she was getting desperate. She had said of her husband: “If he doesn’t get out, I will burn the place down.” According to Beryl, Alma was determined to change her will and “she asked for a piece of paper and then dictated a will to me: She seemed in full possession of her faculties” (The Sydney Sun: Tuesday 2nd May 1950). After composing the will, Alma asked Beryl to keep it as “otherwise her husband would “giver her a belting”” (Sydney Morning Herald: Wednesday 3rd May 1950).
Beryl’s evidence seems to have carried little weight. Mr. Justice Roper rejected the second will and refused to admit it to probate. He said that despite what he had heard: “I find it impossible to feel satisfied that on the date the will was made, the testatrix was of sound mind and understanding” (Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners’ Advocate: Wednesday 3rd May 1950). After stating that Alma was a chronic alcoholic, he went on to say that: “At the time Mrs. Dunn made the will, she did not appear to be actually drunk. But her long addiction to alcohol so impaired her mental powers that she was unable to exercise her discretion in making a will.” His Honour directed that the court costs be paid out of the estate. Sadly, those were different times.
The issue was finally resolved in March 1951 when Letters of Administration were granted to Beryl Vernie Pinson (New South Wales: Index to Deceased Estate Files: 1859 – 1958; See also: NRS-13660-30-10023-Series 4_374861).
Richard and Beryl stayed on next door to Richard’s family’s erstwhile home on “Victoria Street” and the were still living there in 1958, by which time their son, had come of age and also shows up in the records.
Richard had, by then, reverted back to being a “labourer”. His son was a “fitter” and Beryl was, predictably, still assigned to “home duties.” Their son moved out, but Richard and Beryl remained on in “Victoria Road” through until at least 1964 and Beryl was still there in 1968, two years after her husband died. Beryl passed in 1984.
Family Tree
Grandparents
Grandfather: Richard Thomas Pinson: 1850 – 1913
Grandmother: Mary Agnes McClune: 1846 – 1930
Parents
Father: William James Pinson: 1875 – 1945
Mother: Florence Isabella Field: 1874 – 1946
Father’s Siblings (Aunts, Uncles)
Mary Ann Matilda Pinson: 1868 – 1868
Archibald Frederick Pinson: 1869 – 1951
Lily Amy Pinson: 1871 – 1873
William James Pinson: 1875 – 1945
Richard Alfred Pinson: 1877 – 1944
Mary Agnes Pinson: 1879 – xxxx
Thomas Henry Pinson: 1881 – 1938
Herbert Joseph Pinson: 1883 – 1917
Walter Pinson: 1885 – 1946
Pearl Elsie Pinson: 1887 – xxxx
Arthur Ernest Pinson: 1889 – 1960
Ruby May Pinson: 1891 – xxxx
Vera Maud Pinson: 1894 – xxxx
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.