Notts and Derby soldier

[john gregory]

Has any member got any info on 2249 Pte Walter Pitman Notts and Derby later 24220 L/Sgt Machine Gun Corps. Thanks JG

[GraemeClarke]

http://www.derbytelegraph.co.uk/Bygones-pension-Derby-soldier-Walter-despite/story-23130832-detail/story.html

and this

By Derby Telegraph | Posted: November 18, 2014

pitman

Walter Timothy Pitman in his First World War uniform.

Comments (0)

The family connections of a tragic First World War soldier are explored by Derby historian Maxwell Craven.

I READ with interest the recent article on the unfortunate Lance Sergeant Walter Timothy Pitman and his First World War service.

His name rang a bell and a very limited piece of research confirmed my feeling that he was descended from an important member of the elite of the Midlands Enlightenment in Derby.

This was the spar manufacturer Richard Brown (1734-1816). He was a man of international reputation who, apart from Matthew Boulton, made the very finest ornaments out of Blue John and black marble. Kedleston Hall is full of his work.

His factory in King Street, Derby, was seriously truncated by the building of Quaker Way in 2006-2008, despite a prolonged and unsuccessful battle to get the complex listed.

Brown's daughter Ann married Joseph Walter Pitman, who was the younger son of Dorset-born London surgeon Timothy Pitman.

Timothy had married local girl, Ann Tatlow, a close relation of another leading figure, Anthony Tissington, of Swanwick Hall and Iron Gate, who ran an ambitious mining company which covered most of Great Britain, and in which his friend John Whitehurst had a profitable share.

Joseph was a carver at the works, while his brother Timothy Tatlow Pitman was a surgeon in The Wardwick and a partner of prominent Freemason Dr John Harrison, who sat for Joseph Wright.

One of Joseph Walter Pitman's three sons was called (inevitably) Richard Brown Pitman.

He, with his elder brother Joseph Timothy, was awarded the contract to paint the new County Gaol after its creation in 1826.

A sister married Joseph Hall, a London mineralist who took over the marble works, cutting the Pitmans out, which probably explains the family's relegation to a less affluent position in local society.

Now it turns out that Richard Brown Pitman's son, Timothy James, was Lance Sergeant W T Pitman's grandfather.

Much of what I know about Tissington's mining operations and Whitehurst's connection with them is thanks to the generosity of a lady who contacted me more than 20 years ago.

This lady allowed me to examine some family papers relating to it all, which had miraculously survived all the vicissitudes. I now realise that she was one of poor Mr Pitman's daughters.

The facts found their way into my 1996 biography of John Whitehurst and I was pleased to gratefully acknowledge them.

Thanks to the Bygones article, another tiny piece of the historical jigsaw which underpins our knowledge of the momentous events of over 200 years ago drops neatly into place.

I imagine that there must be numerous other descendants of the 1789 Pitman-Brown marriage still living in the area, too.

Regards,

Graeme

[john gregory]

Thanks Graeme. JG