The Sinking of the R.M.S. Leinster
 

People on board

Frank Thomas Winterbourne

WINTERBOURN, Frank Thomas

Frank Thomas Winterbourn was born in 1890 in Camberwell, London to Henry Winterbourn and Elizabeth Milsom. Frank was the eighth of their nine children, six of whom were living in 1911. Henry Winterbourn was a Carpenter but by the time of the 1891 census he was a Builder and his brother Mathew, a Mason, and brother-in-law Robert Milsom, a Bricklayer, were all in his household.

The family was scattered in 1901 with Henry, Elizabeth and daughter Lizzie on holidays in Torquay. Frank has not been identified in the 1901 census; possibly he was away at school. The family then moved from Camberwell to Forest Hill in Lewisham where Elizabeth died in 1909, aged fifty-six. In 1911 only Frank and his older brother Harry, a Builder, and two sisters who were single, Beatrice and Lizzie, were at home with their father and aunt. Frank gave his occupation as Clerk. Henry Winterbourn died in 1917 aged sixty-five.

Frank Winterbourn enlisted in the London Regiment in November 1914 and was posted as a Private, Service Number 2296, to the 1/9th Battalion which was immediately sent to France. He then was made Corporal in the Transport Division. His medal card shows that he was commissioned with the 4/2nd Battalion in August 1915 and by October 1918 he was a Captain in the 2nd Battalion (Royal Fusiliers). His brother Harry was a Sergeant, also in the London Regiment.

It is not known why Frank Winterbourn was in Ireland in October 1918 but he travelled on the 10th on RMS Leinster. He did not survive the sinking but his body was recovered and he was buried in the officers section of Grangegorman Military Cemetery in Dublin. His name is recorded in the War Memorial Book at St Saviour, Forest Hill.

 

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