With the aid of their two daughters, Barbara & Pamela, they quickly found a warden assisted flat in Woking, only three miles from Barbara, so it was an ideal solution.

August 3rd last found them travelling down the A1, leaving most of their old homestead behind them, but it all worked well. Frank had earlier worked for the Ministry of Defence at West Byfleet, & Doris in the chemist’s shop in Send, while they lived in Woking, so it was not strange territory for them.

Frank was born in Wotton-Under-Edge, Gloucestershire, & spent his early boyhood days there. He attended the local Grammar School, but at the age of 13 years the family moved to N.W. London, a complete change of environment from the rural tranquility of the Cotswolds to the rapidly developing suburbia that was engulfing outer London in the 1930’s.

As a schoolboy hobby he was interested in amateur radio, and he gained an appreciation of music, his taste varying from classical to light popular music, including dance band music of the time. These two interests played a significant role in the years ahead.

On leaving school he was initially employed as a junior costing clerk with a small printing firm, but after a while he was transferred to a major national press where he began to study seriously for a career in Cost Accountancy.

His interest in music prompted him to learn to play an instrument & he chose the saxophone. In due course he was able to take his place on the bandstand, not with a leading symphony orchestra but with a small semi-professional dance band. During this same period he also became a bell-ringer & a member of the Youth Club at his local church, & this is where he & Doris first met.

When he was called up for military service in early 1940 he had hoped to follow his father into the Royal Navy, but the Selection Board decreed otherwise & he was assigned to the Royal Army Medical Corps, to train for duties on a hospital ship. Early in the programme however, an injury on the football field put him out of action for six months, thus ending the prospect of any maritime exploits. When he returned to duty it was to clerical work at a Medical Corps Headquarters.

During a spell of convalescent leave, Doris & he became engaged, & were married in their home church at Kingsbury in April 1941.

The prospect of spending his wartime service processing medical records became less stimulating, so when volunteers with experience, or at least, aptitude for radio engineering, were called for to train as radar mechanics, he applied & was accepted. In quick succession he changed cap badges from The Royal Army Medical Corps to The Royal Ordnance Corps & finally to the Corps of Electrical and Mechanical Engineers when it was formed in 1942.

After a tour of duty servicing Radar equipment he was dispatched on various “refresher” courses which gave him the opportunities, in off-duty hours, to play with several unit bands, & on completion of one course he was invited to join the permanent staff & to continue his musical interest off-duty. Service appointments at this level were not normally made by invitation, but the Second-in-Command of the unit had  been his chemistry master at school!

As the end of the war in Europe approached the requirement for Radar Mechanics declined & he found himself on a draft destined for the Far East. Prior to embarkation, however, he was switched to another draft & assigned to a Heavy Ack Ack Battery on the East Coast. Within hours of arrival there the unit was travelling westward to join a force being assembled around Plymouth to relieve the Channel Islands, as he later discovered, although this was subsequently cancelled.

When the war finally ended, with only time to serve until demobilisation, his last military posting was to a Ministry of Defence Scientific Research Establishment located in a London Park but later transferring to Surrey, & when in 1946, he exchanged uniform for civilian clothes, he was offered the opportunity to stay in post as a Civil Servant & to continue working on military research studies, which he accepted. During the so-called “Cold War” years, the Establishment maintained an overseas branch at Headquarters, British Army of the Rhine, & he undertook a tour of duty there, working alongside the Military on field trials & exercises, which extended to ten years. 

Service life provided plenty of scope for social activities & he & Doris took a keen interest in the theatre, assisting with costumes, scenery making, box-office duties etc. They became keen caravaners & in 1960 they were founder members of the Services Caravan Club which still flourishes.

At the end of his tour of duty in Germany, Frank returned to this country to take up his final Civil Service appointment on the staff of the Royal Military College of Science at Shrivenham.

With the approach of retirement in 1979, their search for a congenial place to settle led them to Woodhall Spa, in Lincolnshire & a few years later to Horncastle, where they decided to make their final home.  Frank became a member of the Royal British Legion both at Woodhall Spa & at Horncastle.

They both became regular members of the congregation at St. Margaret’s, Langton & Frank later served for seven years as Churchwarden there.

Frank died after two years of pain and suffering from cancer on 14th January 2002. A very private and Christian man who will be much missed by his family.

Christopher Winkfield and Margaret circa 1850 - 60

Christopher and Margaret and some of their thirteen children.

Taken at Long Wittenham, Berks - The Three Poplars Hotel, owned and run by Christopher Winkfield and wife, 1868 - 1897/8 - now The Pendon Museum.

Thirteen children were born during this time but some died before the age of five.

James Usher Winkfield 1850 - 1918 (seated left), wife Annie Pluckett 1857 - 1937 (seated right) with family:

(L - R)  Emily, Florence (known as Floxie), Harry (1887 - 1924), Annie Winifred (known as Winifred) born 1894

The family lived in Chagford, Devon where they ran a Hotel.