Born in October 1883, in Stanton Harcourt, Witney, Oxfordshire, Captain Wynter died at home in London, on 5th October 1915, of a gunshot wound he had sustained whilst fighting in France on 27th September 1915. He was 32.

He was the son of Colonel Andrew Wynter (retired, Royal Fusiliers, 1847-1924) and Anne Hippolyta Wynter (nee Rawson, 1848-1928). He had two brothers, Henry (1883-1959) and John (1885-1962) and two sisters, Violet (1884-1963) and Edith (1888-1920). The family home was at Little Rissington, Stow on the Wold, Gloucestershire.

He was married to Margaret Constance (nee Gibson, 1886-1950).

Cecil attended Saint Ronan’s, alongside his brothers, from 1894 until 1897. 1895 saw him succeed on the sports field, winning the Junior High Jump, the Junior Quarter Mile and came second in the Junior Obstacle Race. He also came first in the annual gymnastics competition.

In 1896, Cecil won the Senior 100 Yards, The Senior Long Jump (11ft 4in), the 100 Yards (Junior), High Jump Senior (3ft 9½in) and came second in the Hurdles Race Final and the Wheelbarrow Race. He was a member of the cricket team, upon which The Ronian noted that he was “A very good bat indeed for his age. Times the ball well”. He also played football for the school where he was described as “particularly being good, and at times quite brilliant”. He was also a Prefect as well as being member of the Football, Reading Room and Grub Shop Committees. In November 1896, he was awarded his Football Colours for “distinguished play”.

In 1897, Cecil was appointed to the Athletics Committee and that year won the 100 Yards Hurdles, the 100 Yards Senior, the Three Legged Race and came second in the Senior High Jump, despite having a sprained knee.

He was appointed to the Cricket Committee, but his absence from the team at the start of the season was very much noted: “The absence of Wynter has been our other handicap. This has been conclusively shown by the very much more confident batting of the team in general since his return. Ogilvie has beatted very well indeed, in fact, his innings of 51 in the Rottingdean return match was considerably the best piece of work seen done by any S. Ronan’s boy, but he is not absolutely reliable, and he has not that healthy contempt for bad bowling which Wynter seems not only to have himself, but to be able to inspire into his companions. All this has worked heavily agaist us. The success of the eleven, and culminated in the absurd fiasco at Rottingdean, when the whole team were dismissed for 6 runs. Still, we are not going to despair; the two matches which have been played since Wynter’s return, have been won handsomely, and before that, our old opponents, Arlington House, had gone down: moreover, we still have several matches to be played, in which we hope to give a thoroughly good account of ourselves”.

In March 1897, Cecil was confirmed by the Lord Bishop of Chichester and, in the Autumn, he followed his brother Henry to Eton College. He was in H E Luxmore’s house and resident at Barns Pool Terrace. He played as “Outside Left” in their Association Eleven.

On 23rd November 1901, he was appointed as Second Lieutenant to the Oxfordshire Light Infantry, 4th Battalion.

In 1902, he served as a Lieutenant with the Royal Sussex Regiment, attached to the Oxfordshire Light Infantry Regiment, in the Boer War. He was awarded the Queen’s South African Medal with Transvaal Clasp. It is assumed that he must have resigned this commission and returned to civilian life.

He married Margaret Constance Gibson and, in 1908, is recorded as residing in Venado Tuerto, Argentina with his wife. He was working on an estancia (farm) near Drabble.

In 1909, Cecil is recorded as playing on the Eton Ramblers Cricket Team (an Old Etonian side) playing against the Royal Artillery at Woolwich Barracks.

Cecil and his wife returned to England in November 1914 on the Royal Mail Ship “Arlanza”. On 16th August 1914, after the UK entered the War, “Arlanza” had been off the coast of Brazil with more than 1,000 passengers aboard when the German 14,349 GRT auxilliary cruiser “Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse” intercepted her with the order “Stop or I will open fire”. The German ship then ordered her to dismantle her radio aerials and throw them overboard. “Arlanza” was then asked how many women and children she had on board. When she replied “355 women, 97 children”, the German ship ordered her to proceed. She was requisitioned by the Admiralty in 1915.

On 9th November 1914, Cecil was gazetted from the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry to the Irish Guards as a Lieutenant. On 10th September 1915, he was promoted to Captain and was transferred from 1st to 2nd Battalion.

The Irish Guards arrived in France in March 1914 and saw significant action on the front line. In 1914, they were engaged at The Battle of Mons (23rd August) and the subsequent retreat, The Battle of the Marne (5th-12th September), The Battle of Aisne (13th-28th September), and the First Battle of Ypres (19th October-22nd November).

In 1915, Lieutenant Wynter was assigned to No. 4 Company and the Battalion undertake Winter Operations (1914-1915), The Battle of Neuve Chapelle (10th-13th March), The Battle of Festubert (15th-25th May) and The Battle of Loos (25th September-8th October), where Captain Wynter was severely wounded.  

Captain Wyner was a contemporary in the Irish Guards of Lieutenant John “Jack” Kipling, the only son of the author, Rudyard. Like many of those who fell alongside him, Loos was John Kipling’s first taste of war. He joined the fray two days into the battle as part of a reinforcement contingent of Irish Guards. Following his death on 27th September 1915 (the same day that Captain Wynter was injured) at the Battle of Loos, Lieutenant Kipling’s father extensively researched the Regiment, using war diaries of the battalions and first had accounts from the soliders involved.

In his book, “The Irish Guards in the Great War, Volume 2” Kipling notes Captain Wynter’s transfer from 1st to 2nd Batallion on 10th September. He goes on to describe how on 27th September 1915, the Commanding Officers of the four companies, including Captain Wynter as head of No.3 Company received instructions to push the Battalion forward to capture German trenches near Vermelles. No.3 Company were to advance from their trenches when the bombardment stopped and dig into the tough chalk on the further side of Chalk Pit Wood, and, with No.2 Company, hold the face of the wood. Subject to extensive machine gun attack, the Companies fell back and retired “into and through Chalk Pit Wood in some confusion”. Kipling writes: “The Battalion was swept from all quarters, and shelled at the same time, at the end of two hard days and sleepless nights, as a first experience of war, and had lost seven of their officers in forty minutes. They were reformed somewhat to the rear along the Loos-Hulloch road”.

A Guardsman is quoted as saying “Jerry did himself well at Loos upon us innocents. We went into it, knowing no more than our own dead what was coming, and Jerry fair lifted us out of it with machine guns. That was all there was to it that day”. The Battalion reformed the line determined to go up again exactly where it had come from.

Captain Wynter was severely wounded, by a gunshot wound to the head, during the fighting. He was invalided back to England but succumbed to his wounds on 5th October 1915 at his home in Park Lane, London. He is buried near the Wynter family home at Woodhouse Eaves, Leicestershire.

On 15th October 1915, “The Melton Mowbray Times & Vale of Belvoir Gazette” published the following article:

Cecil’s brothers also served and survived the War:

• John Rawson served as a Major with the Royal Field Artillery (Indian Army) 52nd Sikhs. He won the DSO for conspicuous gallantry. Though shot through the shoulder he continued to lead an attack on an enemy redoubt, entered it and held his position for some time against bomb attacks from both flanks. He then covered a flank with marked ability during the retirement, although again hit twice.

• Henry Walter served as a Major with the Royal Artillery, and also won the DSO.

Following her husband’s death, Margaret returned to Argentina in 1916. She remarried, to a gentleman named Alvan Penrice Little, an estanciera in Buenos Aires in 1923.

Captain Wynter is also listed on “Ireland’s Memorial Records, 1914-1918”.

The following is the War Diary of the Irish Guards, which details the events surrounding the wounding of Captain Wynter’s death.

The total casualties in the Battalion during the period 27 – 30th September were:
2nd Lieutenant Pakenham Law, died of wounds.
Captain and Adjutant Hon. T. Vesey, wounded.
Captain Wynter, wounded.
Lieutenant Stevens, wounded.
2nd Lieutenant Clifford, missing probably killed.
2nd Lieutenant Kipling, wounded and missing.
2nd Lieutenant Sassoon, wounded.
2nd Lieutenant Grayson, wounded (shock).
Other ranks: Killed - 25 Wounded - 198 Missing - 101 Total - 324
The majority of the 101 “missing” were eventually found to have been admitted to some Field Ambulances wounded.