Winsor, Philip

Born February 6, 1893, in Weston, Massachusetts. Son of Robert and Eleanor Magee Winsor. Educated Middlesex School, Concord, Massachusetts, and Harvard University, Class of 1915. joined American Ambulance Service, September, 1916, Neuilly Hospital, until January, 1917. Returned to America. Plattsburg Camp, six weeks. Joined American Field Service , June 20, 11917; attached Section Four. Enlisted U. S. Army Ambulance Service, November 1, 1917. Croix de Guerre, two citations. Died in Bussang, October 24, 1918, of pneumonia. Buried in Bussang, Vosges.

THE story of "Phil" Winsor is the story of one handicapped from boyhood by illness which undermined his happiness and self-confidence, who nevertheless by sheer force of character won to health, achievement, and honor in his country's cause.

One of his masters at Middlesex School writes of him: "'Phil' as a school boy was one of those rare sensitive chaps born with a super-conscientiousness that made him almost too good, and yet with this unusual characteristic he found his friends among red-blooded boys whose respect he at once won. This fact proves as well that he never flaunted his goodness nor preached to others who lacked his point of view. His election to the captaincy of the baseball team in his senior year at Middlesex showed his popularity among his mates. As an athlete he possessed a 'good eye,' and as a scholar a mind much above the average of his class."

He entered Harvard in 1911, distinguished himself in freshman athletics, but in the following spring was compelled to leave college on account of ill health. Returning after about a year's absence, he devoted himself to his studies and received his degree in 1916. In September of that year he sailed for France to drive an ambulance for the American Hospital at Neuilly, in Paris.

He returned in January, 1917, and spent the following month in the south with his brother, who writes: "During this month 'Phil' was very unhappy, but there was a battle going on inside him, the forerunner of a very great victory. When war was declared he went to Plattsburg as a candidate for a commission, but after the first six weeks he was dropped from the squad and he himself felt that he was entirely unfitted for a command.

"Phil" felt that he must get back to France in some capacity and yet he loathed the very thought of war and the horrors it entailed. Most of all he hated the sickening work of carrying wounded, and perhaps because he hated it most he decided to take up the work again, and this time at the front. He was sent out in the early summer of 1917 to Section Four, and when in the autumn the Field Service was absorbed by the American Army, he enlisted in the U. S. Army Ambulance Service. For a year it was an uphill fight. He doubted his ability to carry on the work he had undertaken and he dreaded the dangers to which he was exposed, yet to conquer this very dread, he always volunteered for any particularly dangerous task and was twice cited for the Croix de Guerre.

With the summer of 1918, however, came the reward of his long struggle. Through having forced himself to the utmost in his work, he began to take an interest in this work for its own sake. He forgot himself, his fears, his doubts. His health improved greatly and with renewed health came new ambitions and ideals. He had long since won the love and respect of his comrades and the confidence of his officers, and now, by the latter, he was recommended for a commission.

Then suddenly came the end. He fell ill with influenza, pneumonia followed, and on October 24, 1918, he died in France close to the German Border with his Section. It seemed a horrible jest of fate that his life should have ended just as it was, in a real sense, beginning,--- just as he was about to receive the rewards for his fight which he had won. Yet dying as he did, what he gave to his country was a life, the more valuable for its splendid promise as a citizen; what he left behind was a record of which any soldier might be proud.

• Tribute from Memorial Volume of the American Field Service, 1921

Winsor was awarded the Légion d'Honneur (Chevalier degree) posthumously on November 11, 2011.