Albert Edward Winfield

Private Albert Edward Winfield, enlisted on 11th August 1914 at Nottingham and served with Royal Marines Light Infantry, Portsmouth Battalion, Royal Naval Division. He landed in France, at Dunkirk, just over a month later, on 19th September with the Portsmouth Battalion before being withdrawn on 13th October. He moved as part of the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force from 28th February 1915 and served at Gallipoli until his presumed death on 13th July 1915. His body was not recovered and he is, therefore, commemorated on the Helles Memorial.

His brother, Pte. George William Winfield, also serving with the Portsmouth Battalion, had written to his parents from hospital in November 1915 giving news of his experiences as a bomber at Gallipoli, offering no hope that Albert Edward Winfield was still alive, his letter was published on 26th November 1915 in the Long Eaton Advertiser :- “Dear Mother and Dad, - No doubt you were more than surprised to hear that I am in the hospital again, but I can assure you I am getting on all right and shall soon be at the Convalescent Camp again. I was not long at the Peninsula, was I? A fortnight, then back in old place again. I am on the same island as I was before. When I went back to the battalion there was only one left of the Stapleford boys, and that was Phipps. It did seem funny to have none of the boys there, they were all away at the hospital, sick. I expect Mrs. Hunt has received word of Joe being in hospital sick, and Phipps says he was bad too before they took him away. I think I was lucky to get away so quickly again; what do you say? There are no shells and bullets to get in the way. Out of the fortnight I was there, I spent seven days in the trenches. I did some bombing while I was there (I think I have told you that I am now a bomber). The trench I was in was very close to the Turks, and we did let them have it, and they did not forget to let us have or two of theirs; but they did little or no damage. Where we had our bomb barricade, there was a Turkish sniper popping at us all the while; fortunately no one was hit. I think we settled him for a bit though, for we dropped such a nice bomb right into his nest. I had a go at throwing bombs by hand, but I think Mr. Turk was a bit too far off. I don’t think you would like to see me with a lighted bomb in my hand, in the act of throwing it, would you? You would expect it going off too soon or something. Don’t worry yourselves about me in the least. I will promise to look after myself while I am away from the Peninsula, and more especially when I am there. I wish I were at home to comfort you about Albert. He has, as Dad says, laid down his life for King and country. It seems funny but when we were at Port Said together, he did not seem to bother. He said to me, “It’s a glorious death to die on the battlefield.” There’s one thing, he died a true British soldier. I was with him when he went up to the trenches on the day he was reported ‘missing.’ That was the last I saw of him.” Above article is courtesy of Jim Grundy and his facebook pages Small Town Great War Hucknall 1914-1918.