We Will Remember Them

Name: Winman, James Rank: Private Service Number: 57385 Unit: 177th Company, Machine Gun Corps Enlisted: in Bicester Parents: Thomas and Laura Winman. Spouse: Frances C. Aris ? 1st quarter of 1915 registered in Bicester Date of Death: 14th June 1917, killed in action. Age at Death: 26 Memorial/Burial Location: Metz-en-Couture Communal Cemetery, British Extension, France. Plot I. Row D. Grave 5/6. Local War Memorial: Bicester Recent family history: James Winman makes his first appearance aged just 5 months in the 1891 Census. In this, his father Thomas is a general labourer, born in Chipping Norton (the 1901 and 1911 Census returns have his place of birth as Bicester). He and his wife Laura have four other children: Thomas, 13, working as a light porter, Rose, 8, William, 4, and Elizabeth, 2. The family are living in four rooms in the Backway in Bicester. Coincidentally, if the arrangement of names on the Census return is a guide, Thomas and Laura have two other families sharing the same surname close by: William and Maria and their children: James, Annie and Louisa, and William and Matilda and their children: Alfred and James. By the 1901 Census, the Winman family have moved to Bardwell Terrace and there have been a number of additions to the family: Mabel, 8, Beatrice, 6, Louisa, 4, and Frederick, 2 months. Laura and all of her children were born in Bicester. The only addition recorded in the 1911 Census is Thomas Winman Foster, aged 3, Thomas and Laura’s grandson joining the four of his aunts and uncles, including James, at 12 Bardwell Terrace. James, now 20, is listed as working as a butcher. Thomas is now employed as a general labourer for the Bicester Urban Council. Eight of the nine children born to Thomas and Laura are listed as surviving. “Mr. and Mrs. Winman, of 15, Bardwell-terrace, have received the following letter from Lieut. Millett, respecting the death of her son Pte. J. Winman, of the Machine Gun Corps: – It is with the greatest regret that I am writing to you to ask if you will please convey to Mrs. J. Winman the very sad news of her Husband’s death while on active service. He was killed while asleep in a dug-out, by a shell at about 8 o’clock on the morning of the 14th June. There were three other men in the same dug-out, one being killed and another wounded. Pte. Winman’s body was brought down from the trenches last night, and was buried this morning in an English cemetery. A Church of England clergyman officiated, and all the officers and men available attended… Will you please convey to Mrs. Winman the deepest sympathy from the officers and men in her sad bereavement. He was a good soldier, never failing in his duty, and always ready to lend a willing hand in any work we were given to do. If there is anything possible I can arrange, or any request Mrs. Winman may wish, I will give it my immediate attention.”