John Winstanley RIP

Kyt · Feb 18, 2008

Medical student who joined up in 1939, won the MC in Burma and went on to become a consultant ophthalmologist

John Winstanley obituary - Times Online

At the age of 19 John Winstanley had to decide whether to continue his career as a medical student or to join his Territorial Army comrades preparing for war. As events turned out, he was able to fulfil both careers.

In August 1939 he was mobilised, and took up his commission with the 4th Battalion, The Queen’s Own Royal West Kents, with which he fought at Dunkirk, in both battles of El Alamein and at Kohima. In March 1940 he sailed from Southampton to France to join the British Expeditionary Force, which in May 1940 advanced into Belgium to face the German Blitzkrieg.

As adjutant, Winstanley was the link between his battalion and the brigade, moving between the two on a motorcycle, often under enemy fire. He returned to England for a two-year period of training and coastal defence before sailing in early 1942 to Egypt, arriving as a recently promoted major.

Almost immediately wounded, he returned to the battalion in time to take part in the battles of Alam Halfa and El Alamein, before being sent to India to train for operations in Burma.

During the subsequent Arakan offensive he skilfully led his company behind an enemy position, succeeding in holding the valuable ground gained in spite of enemy pressure from north and south, and managing to evacuate his casualties to a place of comparative safety. For his “courage, complete disregard for his own personal safety and leadership” he was awarded the Military Cross.

The 4th Battalion Royal West Kents were then moved to the hill station of Kohima, a vital point in the Japanese route to India. The ensuing battle for Kohima in May 1944 was brutal with significant losses on both sides from hand-to-hand combat and from incessant mortar, grenade, machinegun and artillery fire. Deprived of sleep for days on end, with water rationed to three quarters of a cup per day and with limited medical supplies, the defensive force held the perimeter.

After Kohima Winstanley was promoted to lieutenant-colonel. During further fighting in the mountains he was badly wounded by sniper fire and also caught scrub typhus, which meant that he had to be repatriated.

John Winstanley was born in London in May 1919. He never knew his father, a teak forester in Burma who died of typhoid on the North West Frontier when Winstanley was three months old. He was brought up by his mother, Grace, on a war widow’s pension and educated at Wellington College.

Having commenced his medical studies at St Thomas’ Hospital before the war, he qualified after it, and undertook house jobs, aiming towards a career in general surgery. However, his war wounds flared up and he was advised to undertake a more gentle speciality, selecting ophthalmology. Training at Moorfields Eye Hospital for three years enabled him to rejoin St Thomas’ as senior registrar to the distinguished and innovative surgeon Harold (later Sir Harold) Ridley.

He became a consultant ophthalmic surgeon in 1960 and thus began a lifelong period of devotion and service to that institution.

In 1965 he won a Harkness Fellowship to study ophthalmology in North America. When he became senior consultant in 1971 he ploughed his own furrow, establishing his concept of St Thomas’ as a premier teaching and research establishment with emphasis on the wider medical aspects of ophthalmology.

Developing this unit was aided by the absorption of the Royal Eye Hospital into St Thomas’, which provided more consultants, more beds, a well-staffed medical eye unit, the Iris Fund charity and a few professors. Under his direction St Thomas’ provided unique training to large numbers of aspiring consultants, with research fellowships funded by the Iris Fund, but with high standards maintained by visiting professors and fellows.

His contributions to ophthalmology were widespread. He was civilian consultant in ophthalmology to the Army and to the Metropolitan Police, and honorary surgeon to the Royal Hospital at Chelsea. He was also on the Council of the Medical Protection Society and the Iris Fund, and at various times he served the Royal College of Surgeons and the Faculty of Ophthalmologists as examiner.

Away from his professional life, Winstanley collected antique guns and fishing gear, studied military history, in particular the Peninsular campaigns, and greatly enjoyed woodwork. He was an excellent shot, and an enthusiastic fisherman. He had been awarded the Territorial Decoration in 1951.

He resembled the description of the founder of his college, being honourable in his relations with professional brethren, careful not to put himself forward in any unrecognised manner; not seeking notoriety, simple, kind and dignified.

In 1959 he married Jane Frost. They had a son and two daughters.

John Winstanley, MC, TD, soldier and ophthalmologist, was born on May 11, 1919. He died on January 4, 2008, aged 88
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Antipodean Andy · Feb 18, 2008

Clever man. RIP.

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John Winstanley RIP

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