John Winterton


Sir John Willoughby Winterton KCB, KCMG, CBE, DL was a British Army officer who was the Military Governor and Commander of the British and US Zone of the Free Territory of Trieste from 1951 to 1954.

Military career

Born on 13 April 1898 at Newbury, Berkshire, Winterton was educated at Oundle School and at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, Winterton was commissioned into the Royal Artillery in 1917, during World War I.
After the war, he married, in 1921, and was adjutant to a Territorial Army unit, from 1925 to 1929, before being posted to Burma in 1930 and later attended the Staff College, Quetta from 1936 to 1937. In 1938 he was sent to the Staff College, Camberley as an instructor, and transferred to the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry upon the recommendation of the Commandant of the Staff College, Camberley, Major General Bernard Paget.
He served in World War II initially as Deputy Adjutant and Quartermaster General for I Corps in which role he took part in the Dunkirk evacuation. He became Chief of Staff to the General Officer Commanding Burma, Harold Alexander, in 1942 and was given command of a brigade in Burma in 1943 and then in Italy in 1944.
After the War he became Deputy Commissioner of the Allied Control Commission for Austria 1945 and then became British High Commissioner and Commander-in-Chief Austria in 1950. He went on to be Military Governor and Commander of the British and US Zone of the Free Territory of Trieste from 1951 to 1954 before retiring in 1955. Winterton was Colonel Commandant of the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry from 1955 to 1958 and Colonel Commandant of the 1st Green Jackets from 1958 to 1960. He lived in Newbury, Berkshire.
Winterton was also an Aide-de-Camp to the King.
He married Helen Cross in 1921 with whom he was to have three sons, including the Reverend "Father Gregory" Cecil John Winterton who became Provost of the Oratory in Birmingham and a teacher at St Philip’s Grammar School, Birmingham.
Winterton died on 14 December 1987.