The second son of José Gabriel Braamcamp Freire Pinto Coelho (maternal grandson of the 4th Barons of Almeirim) and first wife Maria Pia Penalva de Almeida e Vasconcelos (grand-niece of the 1st Viscount of Almeida e Vasconcelos, maternal granddaughter of the 2nd Counts of Penalva de Alva and half second cousin of Manuela Ferreira Leite), Pinto-Coelho grew up in Lisbon until the age of 14, but due to the revolutionary period in Portugal, his father, an architect, was forced to look for work abroad, and the family moved to Brazil.