Name
Tyrell Steventon Pinn
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
12/10/1915
31
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Second Lieutenant
East Yorkshire Regiment
8th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 /15 Star, British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
ST. SEVER CEMETERY, ROUEN
Officers Plot A, Row 2, Grave 3.
France
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
Watford Borough Roll of Honour, St Michael and All Angels Church Memorial, Watford, Watford Grammar School Memorial, Watford, Watford Grammar School Book of Remembrance, Coutts' Bank Memorial Strand London, Private Banks' Cricket & Athletic Club Memorial, Catford
Pre War
Son of Frances Ann Elizabeth (nee DAY) and the late Henry George PINN.
His parents married 30 July 1881 at Marylebone Parish Church, London. Henry died 4 October 1891 in Haverstock Hill, Middx, aged 43; Frances died 3 September 1918 in Watford aged 61, and was buried 6 September in Vicarage Road Cemetery, Watford. There is a Death announcement for Frances in the Observer dated 7 September 1918.
Tyrrell was born 1883 in Marylebone. He attended Watford Grammar School from September 1893 to July 1896, being a secretary of its Old Fullerian Association, and then attended Christ’s Hospital from 1896 to 1899. He was an active member of St Michael’s Church, Watford, a popular sidesman, server and Sunday School teacher. He entered Coutts Bank as a clerk at 59 Strand on the 16th May 1904 and previous to the outbreak of war was employed a ledger poster. A memorial in the form of a stained glass window was dedicated at St Michael’s Church, Watford, 1 June 1916.
He has an entry in the National Probate Calendar.
On the 1891 Census, aged 7 he lived in Hampstead, London, with his parents and one sibling. On the 1901 Census, a publisher’s clerk aged 17, he lived in Bushey, Herts, with his widowed mother and no siblings. On the 1911 Census, a bank clerk aged 27, he still lived in Bushey, with his widowed mother and no siblings.
Wartime Service
On 4th August 1914, he was mobilised with the Civil Service Rifles (which Battalion he had joined on 23rd November 1908) and on 26th December 1914 was granted a commission in the 8th Battalion, East Yorkshire Regiment.
He had the misfortune on landing in France to be sucked into the Battle of Loos, near Bethune in northern France. In September 1915 the British were prevailed upon to support a major French assault, despite misgivings about the terrain, the level of training of the new troops, and the shortage of artillery shells. PINN’s battalion was supposed to be held back as reserve as it wasn’t fully trained, but was forced to march over several nights without proper food or rest, and then due to poor management by the general command were sent straight into action against a German army that at that time was the most efficient in the world. PINN was one of the 21 officers and 320 others from a strength of about 600 in the 8th East Yorks who died. He was badly wounded and died in the military hospital at Rouen en route to Southampton.
He was entitled to the Victory, British War and 1914-15 Star medals.
Additional Information
The published Watford Grammar School Book of Remembrance entry reads:
“PINN, TYRELL STEVENTON. School period: September, 1893, to July, 1896. Second Lieutenant, 8th East Yorkshire Regiment. Died of wounds at Rouen, 12th October, 1915."
Unfortunately, Tyrell’s Service Record appears to be one that has not survived.
There are articles about Tyrrell in the Watford Illustrated dated 2, 9, 16 and 23 October 1915; also in the West Herts and Watford Observer of the same dates, (including a Death announcement in the issue dated 16 October), as well as a Grammar School In Memoriam in the issue dated 25 December 1915. Also, articles in the St Michael’s Parish Magazine from November 1915 to July 1916.
Acknowledgments
Sue Carter (Research) and Watford Museum (ROH on line via www.ourwatfordhistory.org.uk)
