Alwyne Compton Pinder (1911 - 1989)

Born 13 Dec 1911 in Lakebay, Pierce, Washington, United States

Ancestors

Died 14 Feb 1989 at age 77 in Tokyo, Japan

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Biography

Alwyne was born in autumn 1911, the only child of Beauchamp Pinder and Belle Grosse.^[1]

Alwyne's early years had him mostly living with his mother and his maternal relatives in Seattle, Tacoma, Portland, and New York City.^[2][3] After attending the University of Washington,^[2][4] Alwyne took a job at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. In the 1930's, he left that job, "... to retrace the adventurous steps of his paternal great-grandfather [ George Rideout Pinder ] in Arabia, India, China and Japan."^[2]

With his quest ending in Japan, he took a job with the Japan Chronicle, a British English-language newspaper in Kobe. Prior to the outbreak of WWII, Alwyne left the Japan Chronicle for the American-owned Japan Advertiser, but it was not long before the paper was taken over by the Imperial Japanese, and Alwyne went to Honolulu. Working for the Star-Bulletin, Alwyne was the first war correspondent credited with covering the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941.^[2]

In 1942 Alwyne transferred stateside and became news editor of the the Pacific operations branch of the Office of War Information. Transferring to the Office of Strategic Services, he served in India and behind Japanese lines in the China pocket. Into the late 1940s, Alwyne covered the Communist take-over of China as a stringer.^[2] In a highly-publicized incident in April 1949, Alwyne's daughter was evacuated from Shanghai to her relatives in Seattle.^[5]

Alwyne Compton Pinder passed away in winter 1989,^[6] and is buried at Yokohama.^[7]

Sources

1. ↑ Washington State Archives, Department of Health, Delayed Birth Records - Alwyne - Beauchamp - Pinder - Et Al., https://www.digitalarchives.wa.gov/DigitalObject/Download/b31be7e4-55c3-44a8-b0ab-3afa3710905b
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4} Pinder, A. C. (1961). Annals of the sea. Tokyo, Japan: Printed by Tokyo New Service, Ltd. for A.C, Pinder.
3. ↑ McKinley Junior High Yearbook, 1924
4. ↑ University of Washington Yearbook, 1930, page 305
5. ↑ e.g. "Wide-Eyed Little 'Buster' Back from Shanghai War", Eugene Guard, April 26, 1949, page 12
6. ↑ "Alwyne C. Pinder, journalist, dies", Japan Daily Times, February 16, 1989
7. ↑ Find A Grave: Memorial #140870988