Oliver Erskine WINTER MM

Oliver Erskine WINTER MM Update Details

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S2930

WINTER, Oliver Erskine

Service Numbers:	2043, S71368
Enlisted:	15 January 1915
Last Rank:	Lance Sergeant
Last Unit:	5th (SA) Battalion Volunteer Defence Corps (VDC)
Born:	Born at Nalpa Station, Willington (near Langhorne Creek), 26 January 1896
Home Town:	Langhorne Creek, Alexandrina, South Australia
Schooling:	Not yet discovered
Occupation:	Labourer
Died:	Natural Causes, Albert Park, South Australia, 26 April 1962, aged 66 years
Cemetery:	Happy Valley Cemetery, Port Lincoln RSL Section
Memorials:	Langhorne Creek WW1 Roll of Honour, Murray Bridge Roll of Honour WW1

World War 1 Service

15 Jan 1915:	Enlisted AIF WW1, Private, 2043, 10th Infantry Battalion
20 Apr 1915:	Embarked AIF WW1, Private, 2043, 10th Infantry Battalion, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '10' embarkation_place: Adelaide embarkation_ship: HMAT Hororata embarkation_ship_number: A20 public_note: ''
1 Jul 1915:	Involvement AIF WW1, Private, 2043, 10th Infantry Battalion, ANZAC / Gallipoli, Evacuated to Mudros with Measles.
2 Feb 1916:	Transferred AIF WW1, Private, 50th Infantry Battalion, Transferred to the 50th Battalion as part of the 'doubling of the AIF' after the evacuation from ANZAC
4 Aug 1916:	Involvement AIF WW1, Private, 2043, 50th Infantry Battalion, Mouquet Farm
16 Aug 1916:	Wounded Private, 2043, 50th Infantry Battalion, Mouquet Farm, Evacuated to Rouen Hospital
20 Mar 1917:	Involvement AIF WW1, Private, 2043, 50th Infantry Battalion, German Withdrawal to Hindenburg Line and Outpost Villages
4 Apr 1917:	Involvement AIF WW1, Private, 2043, 50th Infantry Battalion, Noreuil, Awarded the MM for bravery in the Field
5 May 1917:	Involvement AIF WW1, Lance Corporal, Army Training Units, Attached 13th Training Battalion Codford UK
31 Jul 1917:	Promoted AIF WW1, Corporal, 50th Infantry Battalion, Detached for duty to the 13th Training Battalion at Codford in the UK
4 Mar 1918:	Involvement AIF WW1, Corporal, 2043, 50th Infantry Battalion, Dernancourt/Ancre
30 Sep 1918:	Discharged AIF WW1, Corporal, 2043, 50th Infantry Battalion

World War 2 Service

1 Jun 1942:	Enlisted Australian Military Forces (Army WW2), Lance Sergeant, S71368, 5th (SA) Battalion Volunteer Defence Corps (VDC)
1 Jun 1944:	Discharged Australian Military Forces (Army WW2), Lance Sergeant, S71368, 5th (SA) Battalion Volunteer Defence Corps (VDC)

Help us honour Oliver Erskine Winter's service by contributing information, stories, and images so that they can be preserved for future generations.

Biography contributed by Sharyn Roberts

Son of Richard WINTER and Emma nee SMITH

Biography

Awarded the Military Medal;

"At NOREUIL on 2nd April, 1917, this man on seeing a number of Non Commissioned Officers shot down before getting into the village went out in front and led the men about him. going through the village his rifle was shot out of his hands. He continued to lead his men armed only with his bayonet, displaying great courage and daring. Previous to going into action he did excellent work on patrols." - Source: 'Commonwealth Gazette' No. 174 - Date: 11 October 1917.

Military Medal No.2043.

Biography contributed

Oliver Erskine WINTER (1894-1962)

Oliver Erskine's schoolboy-faced, unassuming enlistment photograph belied a very capable soldier transformed by the fortunes of war, leading a group of his collagues armed only with a bayonet after having his rifle shot out of his hands in the chaos of Noreuil. He was one of three brothers who served in the AIF all of them in the 50th Battalion. Oliver was recovering in hospital from 'pyrexia' (a mysterious fever) in April 1918 when the 50th Battalion took part in the famous night counter-attack at Villers Bretonneux. Sergeant AL:bert Wineter was one of the 50th Battalion's many fatalities in that engagement.

Another brother, Francis had perished from his sounds received on the Somme in November 1916. On news of Albert's death, Oliver wrote to LTCOL Salisbury, the Battalion CO, requestng discharge as he was the last of three brothers, and he had recently married and English girl, named Etherl. As an original Gallipoli veteran, with a clean conduct sheet. The CO LTCOL Slaisbury endorsed his request up to Brigade where it was also reviewed favourably by the Brigade Commander Brigadier Glasgow, and it then corssed the desk of the DIvisional Commander, MAJGEN Ewen Sinclair MacLagan who endorsed it on to AIF Headquarters in London.

Corporal Oliver Winter was ordered to Weymouth in the UK, where he awaited a ship home. Etherl followed later. He arrived back in Australia on 16 September, as the war was drawing to its tumultuous conclusion.

Oliver and Ethel raised a family detail os which are contained in his RSL SA Membership card; A son Bert, and daughterr Peggy. He died on 26 April, 1962.

Source:

FAULKNER, A "Guts Glory and Blunder - Noreuil, 1917, The Forgotten Fight" 2024 Big Sky Publishing ISBN: 978-1-923144-13-2

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