Alfred Wintle

Lieutenant Colonel Alfred Daniel Wintle MC, better known as A.D. Wintle, (30 September 1897–11 May 1966) was a British military officer in the 1st The Royal Dragoons who served in the First and Second World Wars. He was the first non-lawyer to achieve a unanimous verdict in his favour in the House of Lords.

He is considered to be one of London's greatest eccentrics.

Early life

The son of a diplomat, Alfred Daniel Wintle was born in Mariopoul, South Russia. In 1901, the family went to live in Dunkirk, and he was subsequently educated in France and Germany, becoming fluent in both French and German.

First World War

On the outbreak of war, the 16-year-old Wintle was in Dunkirk and claimed to have ‘irregularly attached’ himself to Commander Samson’s famous armoured cars, witnessing on one occasion some Uhlans being shot up in Belgium.

AD was desperate for some action. In the summer of 1915, his father finally agreed to his son’s early entry into the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich. He managed to get himself ‘passed out’ and commissioned within four months. Within a week he was at the front. On his first night, a shell burst near him, splashing over him the entrails of his sergeant, to whom he had just been introduced. Wintle later admitted to being petrified. As the bombardment continued around him, he dealt with his fear by standing to attention and saluting. As he later wrote ‘Within thirty seconds I was able to become again an Englishman of action and to carry out calmly the duties I had been trained to perform’.

The incident was typical both of a series of amazing escapes and his pride at being an Englishman, as opposed to being born "a chimpanzee or a flea, or a Frenchman or a German". He saw action at Ypres, the Somme, La Bassée and Festubert, supposedly capturing the village of Vesle single-handed before handing it over to the New Zealanders, who were about to attack it in force. His luck finally ran out during Third Ypres in 1917. As he helped manhandle an 18pdr across a ‘crater-swamp’. The gun carriage wheel hit an unexploded shell and he woke up in a field hospital minus his left eye, one kneecap and several fingers. His right eye was so damaged that he had to wear a monocle for the rest of his life. Wintle was still only nineteen years old.

Wintle was sent back to England to convalesce by the ‘infernal quacks’. It appeared that his war was over. Unsurprisingly, Wintle had other ideas. He was soon planning his escape from the Southern General Hospital back to the front, bizarrely choosing to attend a nurses only dance in their billets, disguised as a nurse, before finally making his escape. He recorded, however, that his monocle was a dead give-away, and that the particularly unpleasant Matron was suitably unimpressed with his antics.

He then entrained for France with a warrant signed by a friend of his father’s and had a ‘moderately successful year of action' with 119th Battery, 22nd Brigade, RFA. His MC was gazetted in the London Gazette of 2 April 1919 and the citation was published in the London Gazette of 10 December 1919. It is interesting to note that according to the obituary he received his MC in the mail the exact day when it was announced in the London Gazette. The citation read:

For marked gallantry and initiative on 4th Nov. 1918 near Jolimentz. He went forward with the infantry to obtain information and personally accounted for 35 prisoners. On 9th Nov. he took forward his section well in front of the infantry and throughout the day he showed initiative of a very high order and did excellent work.

Wintle later recalled that he could not remember anything about either incident.

He is said to have regarded the period between the First and Second World Wars as "intensely boring".

World War II

When, in September 1939, World War II began Wintle tried everything to persuade his superiors to allow him to go to France.

When they refused, he planned to resign his commission and form his own army "to take the war to the Hun".

In his book, ‘Most Secret War,’ Professor RV Jones recalls encountering Wintle on matters of Air Intelligence. He was suitably impressed by this Army officer who knew enough of technicalities to know the difference between a Spectroscope and a Spectrograph, and who took keen note of the minute details contained within intelligence reports that might have indicated their authenticity, or otherwise. On passing a few remarks with Wintle on Horse Guards Parade one morning, he recorded that he was surprised to see a news headline a few days later, ‘Cavalry Officer in the Tower.’

It seemed that after the French surrender, Wintle had demanded an aircraft (with which he intended to rally the French Air Force to fly their planes to Britain and continue fighting Germany from British air bases) and upon being prevented from this had threatened a bureaucratic officer of the RAF, Air Commodore AR Boyle with a gun. It was alleged that he had threatened to shoot himself and the unfortunate Boyle. For this he was imprisoned in the Tower of London. On the way to his prison, the lieutenant colonel was escorted by a young soldier via the train. The soldier is reported to have lost the arrest warrant and, disgusted by this, Wintle declared the man incompetent, told him to wait where he was and went to get a new warrant. Seeing that there was no other officer of higher rank at the warrant office, he signed the paper himself.

Of his time in the Tower, he wrote:

'My life in the Tower had begun. How different it was from what I had expected. Officers at first cut me dead, thinking that I was some kind of traitor; but when news of my doings leaked out they could not do enough for me. My cell became the most popular meeting place in the garrison and I was as well cared for as if I had been at the Ritz. I would have a stroll in the (dry) moat after breakfast for exercise. Then sharp at eleven Guardsman McKie, detailed as my servant, would arrive from the officers' mess with a large whisky and ginger ale. He would find me already spick and span, for though I have a great regard for the Guards, they have not the gift to look after a cavalry officer's equipment. The morning would pass pleasantly. By noon visitors would begin to arrive. One or two always stayed to lunch. They always brought something with them. I remember one particularly succulent duck in aspic - it gave me indigestion - and a fine box of cigars brought by my family doctor. Tea time was elastic and informal. Visitors dropped in at intervals, usually bringing along bottles which were uncorked on the spot. I don't recall that any of them contained any tea. Dinner, on the other hand, was strictly formal. I dined sharp at eight and entertained only such guests as had been invited beforehand. After a few days of settling in, I was surprised to find that - as a way of life- being a prisoner in the Tower of London had its points.'

When his case arose, Wintle was read the charges against him, of which there were three. The first was that he had feigned defective eysight (and therefore infirmity in order to avoid active duty). This charge was dismissed after Wintle's defence provided medical evidence to disprove it.

The second charge was assaulting Air Commodore Boyle; and the third was conduct contrary and to the prejudice of good order and military discipline. To the latter was added the claim that he had drawn a gun in the presence of the RAF officer, and stated that ‘people like you ought to be shot.’ Professor Jones recalled that far from denying this, Wintle admitted the act, and produced a list of people who he felt should likewise be shot as a patriotic gesture. The list must have been a topical one, for after he had read out the sixth name upon it (Hore-Belisha, then Secretary of State for War), that particular charge was also dropped. The government - embarrassed by his accusations - upheld the court decision to drop all charges, bar one, the assault on Commodore Boyle. Professor Jones went on to add that Wintle was in the pretty safe position of being tried by an Army court whilst on charges brought by the RAF.

He was formally reprimanded and sent abroad - but not to France.

Wintle formally resigned his commission and joined the Secret Service, where his first posting was to France where, in 1941, he was arrested as a spy and imprisoned by the Vichy French.

He called the entire garrison together (including Maurice Molia, the commandant) and informed them that he was going to escape and get back to Britain. He added that anyone who called himself a Frenchman would follow him. He then went on a hunger strike for two weeks to protest at the "slovenly appearance of the guards who are not fit to guard an English officer!" before slipping over the wall of the castle. As Molia said on Wintle's This Is Your Life programme in 1959, shortly after the escape "because of Wintle's dauntless determination to maintain English standards and his constant challenge to our authority," the entire garrison of 280 men had gone over to the Resistance.

Post War Years

After the war, he stood as a Liberal Party candidate for the 1945 General Election at Norwood. The seat had little in terms of a Liberal voting tradition and he finished third with about 11% of the vote.

He once was so furious about the lack of first class carriages on a train, that he took over the engine and refused to move until more carriages appeared.

Wintle made legal history when he fought a legal action against a dishonest solicitor named Nye, whom he accused of taking the sum of forty four thousand pounds to which he had not been entitled from the estate of Wintle's deceased cousin. In 1955, to publicise the case, he served time in prison after forcing Nye to remove his trousers and submit to being photographed in this condition. He determinedly pursued the unfortunate Nye through the courts over the next three years, losing his case on two occasions. By 1958 in the final stages, Wintle ran out of money and had to present the case himself. On November 26, 1958 the Lords announced that they had found for Wintle, reasons for judgment being reserved. Wintle thus became the first non-lawyer to achieve a unanimous verdict in his favour in the House of Lords (Wintle v Nye [1959] 1 All ER 552). He also appeared in 1960 before the Disciplinary Committee of the Law Society where he succeeded in having Nye struck off the roll of Solicitors.

A comprehensive analysis of the legal issues in the Wintle v Nye lawsuit is provided by Kerridge in “Wills made in Suspicious Circumstances: the Problem of the Vulnerable Testator” (Cambridge Law Journal, 59(2): 310-334, July 2000, at http://www.jstor.org/stable/4508677, accessed 12 May 2010). The author also provides a brief overview of the factual background to the case (pp 315-6) and a discussion of the procedural difficulties faced by Col. Wintle in prosecuting the civil case: pp 317-20. The author suggests the ultimate victory by Wintle was the “right result by the wrong route” (p 327) because at the time of the appeal to the House of Lords “everyone was mindful of the newspaper headlines” (p 323) with the suggestion that the Law Lords were forced to resort to sophistry to uphold Wintle’s appeal (pp 322-5) and offers the conclusion that it “is a case which has haunted this branch of the law for a generation.”

The editor of The Times preserved a letter that Wintle had sent him in 1946:

Sir,
I have just written you a long letter.
On reading it over, I have thrown it into the waste paper basket.
Hoping this will meet with your approval,
I am, Sir,
Your obedient Servant,
AD Wintle

Freddie Wintle died in May 1966, and was cremated at Maidstone Crematorium; even though he had wanted a funeral at Canterbury Cathedral, with a full Church service and the Royals on parade, playing "My Old Tarpaulin Jacket":

A tall stalwart lancer lay dying,
And as on his deathbed he lay,
To his friends who around him were sighing,
These last dying words he did say:

chorus: Wrap me up in my tarpaulin jacket
And say a poor buffer lies low;
And six stalwart lancers shall carry me
With steps solemn, mournful and slow.

Had I the wings of a little dove,
Far far away would I fly; I'd fly
Straight for the arms of my true love
And there I would lay me and die.

Then get you two little white tombstones
Put them one at my head and my toe, my toe,
And get you a penknife and scratch there:
"Here lies a poor buffer below."

And get you six brandies and sodas,
And set them all out in a row, a row,
And get you six jolly good fellows
To drink to this buffer below.

And then in the calm of the twilight
When the soft winds are whispering low, so low,
And the darkening shadows are falling,
Sometimes think of this buffer below.

An encounter with Wintle in the El Vino club is related in this letter to the Editor of the Spectator published May 8, 1999.

The heading was Bower’s bans (Letters to the Editor, The Spectator, May 8, 1999)

From Mr Tom Pocock

Sir: Frank Bower was not always able to eject unwanted patrons from El Vino (Letters, 1 May). One morning in the late Fifties, a West Indian workman entered what he thought was a pub and asked the proprietor for a pint of bitter. Empurpled with rage, embroidered waistcoat at bursting point, Bower was hustling him into Fleet Street when interrupted by a crisp military command from the back of the bar: `That gentleman is a friend of mine. I have been expecting him. Kindly show him to my table.' Colonel Wintle - celebrated for inspecting the turn out of his German guards when a prisoner of war and for debagging a solicitor - had spoken.

Rising to greet his guest, Wintle trained his monocle on Bower and ordered, `Pray bring us two small glasses of white wine.' When this had been drunk and a convivial conversation concluded, the Colonel and his new friend rose, shook hands and went their separate ways. Tom Pocock 22 Lawrence Street, London SW3

In popular culture

He was the feature of a one-off TV movie in the "Heroes and Villains" series called "The Last Englishman" featuring Jim Broadbent in the title role. "The Last Englishman" is also the title of his autobiography.

Quotes

• "I am never bored when I am present." - on being asked upon his release from prison if he had found it boring.
• "It may have escaped your attention, but there is no fighting to be done in England." - on being told he was being removed from active duty against his will following an injury.
• "No true gentleman would ever unfurl one" - Wintle discussing his umbrella
• "This umbrella was stolen from Col. A.D. Wintle" - note left in his permanently furled umbrella
• "Time spent dismounted can never be regained,"
• "No true gentleman would ever leave home without one" - of his monocle
• "Guy Fawkes was the last man to enter Parliament with good intentions. You need another like me to carry on his good work."
• "I get down on my knees every night and thank God for making me an Englishman. It is the greatest honour He could bestow. After all, he might have made me a chimpanzee, or a flea, a Frenchman or a German!"
• "What I like about Isherwood's paintings is that there is no doubt about which way they hang" - Wintle on art
• "Attend a German school sir? I would rather cut my hands off and blind myself in one eye. Only an English school is good enough for me." - young Alfred upon being told by his father that he was to attend a German school
• "Stop dying at once and when you get up, get your bloody hair cut" - Wintle to Trooper Cedric Mays (Royal Dragoons), who recovered and lived to the age of 95.
• "Great War peace signed at last." - Wintle's diary, 19 June 1919
• "I declare private war on Germany." - Wintle's diary, 20 June 1919
• "It was not until I got to the Lords was I dealing with my intellectual equals." - Wintle explaining his legal victory in the House of Lords after losing at trial and before the Court of Appeal.

A brief biography can be found at Mal Park, "A layman's triumph", 70 Victorian Bar News pp 10–17 (Spring 1989) < http://repository.unimelb.edu.au/10187/1831 > A full-length autobiography, compiled after his death by his friend Alastair Revie from the more than a million words left by Wintle, was published in 1968 by Michael Joseph under the title 'The Last Englishman'.

Another short biography of Wintle can be found in chapter 13 ("Colonel 'Debag' rides again", pages 143-153) of Robert Littell's It takes all kinds published by Reynal & Co, New York, 1961. The text is available for download from archive.org at < http://www.archive.org/details/ageofjackson030983mbp >. The text has been incorrectly located in archive.org as The Age of Jackson (1953) by Arthur Schlesinger. Not surprisingly, those visitors to archive.org seeking the Schlesinger book would be well advised to seek it under the author Robert Littell and the title It takes all kinds.

JD Casswell, KC represented Wintle at his World War II court martial and devotes pages 152 - 159 to Wintle in his 1961 autobiography A lance for liberty.

References

Books

• Gobbo, James (1 September 2010). Something to Declare: A Memoir. The Miegunyah Press. p. 64. ISBN 9780522857313. http://books.google.com/books?id=EccyR2uZMvYC&pg=PA64. Retrieved 7 May 2011. 
• Quinn, Tom; Leaver, Ricky (2009). Eccentric London. New Holland Publishers. p. 31. ISBN 9781847732194. http://books.google.com/books?id=8xEnamQrlvEC&pg=PA14. Retrieved 7 May 2011. 

Further reading

• Park, Malcolm (Spring 1989). "A layman’s triumph". Victorian Bar News (University of Melbourne) 70: 10–19. http://repository.unimelb.edu.au/10187/1831. Retrieved 2011-05-07. 

External links

• TIME magazine article on Wintle from 1955
• Mal Park, "A layman's triumph", published 70 Victorian Bar News pp 10-17 (Spring 1989)
• chapter 13 of Robert Littell's It takes all kinds (1961)