Winston Field

Winston Joseph Field

Background

Winston Field was born in Bromsgrove, Worcestershire on the 6 June 1904. He went to Southern Rhodesia in 1921 and engaged in tobacco farming in what was then known as the Marandellas District now Marondera.

Field was President of the powerful Rhodesian Tobacco Association from 1938 to 1940, when he left for military service during the Second World War. ^[1]

Field was court-martialled and demoted to the rank of private for striking a subordinate. Field then transferred to the British Forces, joining the Worcestershire Regiment as a Second Lieutenant from 1941, served in the D-Day Normandy landings in 1944, and ended the war with the rank of Major in the 6th Durham Light Infantry.^[1]

Education

Filed was educated at Bromsgrove School.^[1]

Political Career

Field entered politics in 1956 when he became the head of the new Dominion Party, Southern Rhodesia was then part of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. A year later Field was elected to the Federal Assembly where he was Leader of the Opposition (1958-1962) to Sir Roy Welensky's government. Field was MP for Marandellas, Southern Rhodesia (1962-1965) and for the same period was President of the Rhodesia Front Party in Southern Rhodesia (formerly the Dominion Party). Field led the Party to victory in territorial elections at the end of the year and was made Prime Minister of Southern Rhodesia in 1962. After the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland was dissolved a year later, the right wing of his party revolted against him for failing to press Britain on the issue of independence for the colony. A party congress in April 1964 dismissed him from office in favour of his Deputy Prime Minister Ian Smith.