John Winterbottom
1781 - 1838
From “Historical
Record of the Fifty-Second Regiment (Oxfordshire Light
Infantry) from the year 1755 to the year 1858.
Compiled under direction of the Committee and edited by W.S.Moorsom
M.I.C.E. Late Captain 52nd Light Infantry, and D.Q.M.G.
ISBN 1843422433. The Naval & Military Press Ltd. First published
1860.
“A regiment never surpassed in arms since arms were first borne by men” – W. Napier: Nivelle, 1813.
p. 311
On the 6th of November (1838) the regiment disembarked at Barbadoes, and occupied the Brick Barracks, St. Anne's.
About the middle of this month, the portion of the barracks allotted to the officers was visited by that fatal epidemic, the yellow fever, which continued its ravages for nearly six weeks, the sickness being confined alone to the officers' pavilion. Of fourteen officers present with the service companies, twelve were attacked, and three died, viz. Paymaster John Winterbottom, Lieutenant V. A. Surtees, and Ensign Edward Gough. The building was eventually condemned as unhealthy, and evacuated entirely; and no case of fever afterwards occurred among the officers when thus relieved.
Paymaster John Winterbottom, who thus fell under the stroke of a pestilential disease on the 26th of November in this year, was a veteran soldier, who had nobly borne his part in earning distinction for his regiment and for himself during nearly forty years of service.
Born in the parish of Saddleworth, Yorkshire, in 1781, John Winterbottom was early obliged to help in the support of a very poor family by cloth-weaving. It was during a period of much distress among the operative weavers that young Winterbottom enlisted into the 52nd on the 17th of October, 1799.
His first return to the home of his family was in 1814, during the short peace which his exertions had helped to achieve, and which put an end to the Peninsular war. On this occasion his fellow-parishioners presented to him at a public dinner a handsome gold snuff-box, together with expressions of their admiration of his worth and gallantry, such as drew from him a reply only in sentences broken by his feelings under the excitement of an honour so gratifying. His ability as an executive officer, his sterling integrity, high sense of honour, always coupled with that of his regiment, and readiness to oblige and instruct in their duty the younger officers, conveying instruction in a manner to encourage and inspire rather than to annoy or disgust, were so fully appreciated, that on his death one hundred and forty-three officers, most of whom had served with him either in the same regiment or in the same brigade, subscribed to erect to his memory a handsome monumental tablet, which is now in his parish-church at Saddleworth, and bears the following inscription :-
" John Winterbottom, Paymaster of the 52nd Light Infantry. Died at the Head-Quarters of the Regiment, in the Island of Barbadoes, on 26th November, 1838.
" Born at Saddleworth, 17th November, 1781.
" Private Soldier, 52nd, 17th October, 1799.
" Corporal, April, 1801.
" Serjeant, December, 1803.
" Serjeant-Major, 11th June, 1805.
" Ensign and Adjutant, 24th November, 1808.
" Lieutenant and Adjutant, 28th February, 1810.
“ Paymaster, 31st May, 1821."
He served with distinction at the following battles and sieges:-As a Private at Ferrol, as Serjeant-Major at Copenhagen and Vimiero, as Adjutant at Corunna, the Coa, Busaco, Pombal, Redinha, Ciudad Rodrigo, Badajoz, Salamanca, San Munoz, Vittoria, the heights of Vera, Nivelles, the Nive, Orthes, Tarbes, Toulouse, and Waterloo, as well as in other actions of less note, in which the 52nd was engaged during the war, and he was never absent from his regiment except in consequence of wounds received at Redinha, Badajoz, and Waterloo.