Editing Winston Field

{{short description|Seventh Prime Minister of Southern Rhodesia}}
{{EngvarB|date=August 2014}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2014}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| honorific-prefix    = [[The Honourable]]
| name                = Winston Field
| honorific-suffix    = {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|CMG|MBE}}
| image               = Winston Field 1960.jpg
| imagesize           = 
| smallimage          = 
| caption             = 
| order               = 7th
| office              = Prime Minister of Southern Rhodesia
| term_start          = 17 December 1962
| term_end            = 13 April 1964
| deputy              = [[Ian Smith]]
| monarch             = [[Queen Elizabeth II|Elizabeth II]]
| governor            = [[Humphrey Gibbs|Sir Humphrey Gibbs]]
| predecessor         = [[Edgar Whitehead]]
| successor           = [[Ian Smith]]
| birth_date          = 6 June 1904
| birth_place         = [[Bromsgrove]], Worcestershire, United Kingdom
| death_date          = {{Death date and age|df=yes|1969|3|17|1904|6|6}}
| death_place         = [[Harare|Salisbury]], [[Rhodesia]]
| nationality         = 
| party               = [[Rhodesian Front]]
| spouse              = 
| relations           = 
| children            = 
| alma_mater          = 
<!-- Military service -->
| allegiance = {{flag|United Kingdom}}<br/>{{flag|Southern Rhodesia}}
| branch = [[Rhodesian Security Forces|Rhodesian Army]]<br/>[[British Army]]
| serviceyears = 1940–1945
| rank = [[Major (United Kingdom)|Major]]
| battles = 
{{tree list}}
* [[Second World War]]
** [[Normandy landings]]
{{tree list/end}}
| mawards = 
}}
'''Winston Joseph Field''' {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|CMG|MBE}} (6 June 1904 – 17 March 1969) was a [[British people|British]] politician who served as the seventh [[Prime Minister of Southern Rhodesia]]. Field was a former [[Dominion Party]] MP who founded the [[Rhodesian Front]] political party with [[Ian Smith]].

==Early life==
Field was born and raised in [[Bromsgrove]] and attended [[Bromsgrove School]] as a day student, in [[Worcestershire]], [[England]], and moved to [[Southern Rhodesia]] at the age of 17 in 1921. A tobacco farmer near Marandellas (now known as [[Marondera]]), in [[Mashonaland East]], Field was President of the powerful Rhodesian Tobacco Association from 1938 to 1940, when he left for military service during the [[Second World War]].<ref name="Bodleian">{{cite web |title=Papers of the Hon. Winston Field |url=https://archives.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/repositories/2/resources/928 |website=Bodleian Archives & Manuscripts |publisher=Bodleian Libraries |access-date=11 April 2021}}</ref>

Initially enlisting in the [[Rhodesian Security Forces|Rhodesian Forces]] as a sergeant, he was court-martialled and demoted to the rank of private for striking a subordinate.<ref name="Bulletin">{{cite journal |title=The White Squire - Southern Rhodesia's enigmatic Mr Field |journal=[[The Bulletin (Australian periodical)|The Bulletin]] |date=6 April 1963 |volume=85 |issue=4338 |pages=25–26 |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-684932898 |access-date=11 April 2021}}</ref> Field then transferred to the British Forces, joining the [[Worcestershire Regiment]] as a Second Lieutenant from 1941, served in the [[Normandy landings|D-Day Normandy landings]] in 1944, and ended the war with the rank of [[Major (United Kingdom)|Major]] in the 6th [[Durham Light Infantry]].<ref name="Bulletin"/><ref name="Bodleian"/><ref>{{London Gazette |issue=35337|date=4 November 1941|supp=|page=6429}}</ref>

==Early political career==
Field was first elected to the [[Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland]] Federal Assembly for Mrewa in a [[1953 Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland election#Mrewa by-election|1957 by-election]] under the Dominion Party ticket. The Federation Minister of Justice, [[Julian Greenfield]], found him "somewhat impulsive and opinionated but entirely straightforward".{{citation needed|date=July 2017}}

When the [[Rhodesian Front]] was founded in early-1962 by [[Ian Smith]] and [[Douglas Lilford|Douglas "Boss" Lilford]]; a very wealthy right-wing tobacco farmer, they needed an establishment figurehead and Field was chosen. He was a solid, trustworthy figure and no racist, even though "nearly everyone else in the new party was to the right of him".<ref>Holderness H. 'Last Chance &ndash; Southern Rhodesia 1945&ndash;1958' Harare 1985</ref> His wife said "he didn't really want to take it on, he wasn't really a political animal".<ref>Zimbabwe National Archives – oral recording with Barbara Field 1971</ref>

==Prime Minister of Southern Rhodesia==
The "imperious and intolerant"<ref name=Godwin>''Rhodesians Never Die'', Godwin, P. & Hancock, I., 1995. Baobab Books, Harare, Zimbabwe.</ref> Field was elected, to his and many others' surprise, as Rhodesia's first Rhodesian Front [[Prime Minister of Rhodesia|Prime Minister]] at the [[1962 Southern Rhodesian general election|1962 general election]] and served until he was replaced by [[Ian Smith]] in 1964. Field lent an air of respectability to the Rhodesian Front government, though his Cabinet was derided by one newspaper as "by no means an inspiring list".<ref>'Daily News' 18 December 1962</ref> Broader afield, the Australian journal ''[[The Bulletin (Australian periodical)|The Bulletin]]'' noted of Field that "those who know him best do not for a moment suppose that Winston Field has been slow to attract attention because he is personally diffident or lacking in character. On the contrary, they see him as a man of cold reserve, not softened by his past defeats, not at all intimidated by the terrible power over other men’s lives now put into his hands by the white voters of Southern Rhodesia."<ref name="Bulletin"/>

At the time of Field's election, it was assumed that the UK would delay the process of independence for Rhodesia until "an African majority assumed power in [[Harare|Salisbury]]".<ref name=Godwin /> Many in the Rhodesian Front felt that Field did not fight hard enough for independence, in particular that the British had hoodwinked him on visits to London in June 1963 and January 1964 over promises of independence. His relatively short tenure in office saw the dissolution of the Central African Federation on 31 December 1963, though he did win the majority of the Federation's military and other assets for Southern Rhodesia.

Field's Cabinet included John Gaunt, a former Federal MP for Lusaka and a former District Commissioner in Northern Rhodesia. Aware of discontent in Cabinet fomented by Gaunt, Field demanded his resignation in the spring of 1964. Gaunt asked him to wait over the weekend whilst he cleared up some matters in his office. In that time, Gaunt and Smith organised a plot against Field, now seen as ineffectual after his failure to win independence. [[Ken Flower]], head of Rhodesia's Central Intelligence Organisation, an organisation Field had ordered be set up, had in fact warned him sometime previously there was a conspiracy against him, involving several of his ministers.<ref>Ken Flower – ''Serving Secretly'' 1987</ref>

The caucus of the Rhodesian Front decided to ask for his resignation on 2 April 1964 and the decision was conveyed to Field the next day, though the formal demand was not made until a Cabinet meeting a few days later. Field was replaced as leader of the Rhodesian Front and as Prime Minister of Rhodesia by Ian Smith on 14 April 1964, despite the Governor Sir [[Humphrey Gibbs]] urging him to fight against the rebels in his party.<ref>Young K. ''''Rhodesia and Independence'''' London 1967 Page 106</ref>

==Later life==
Field retired from parliament at the [[1965 Rhodesian general election|May 1965 election]], at which the Rhodesian Front under Ian Smith was returned with a greater majority, and was succeeded in his Marandellas seat by [[David Smith (Rhodesian politician)|David Smith]].<ref name="Bodleian"/>

Field died at the age of 64 in Salisbury, Rhodesia, in 1969.<ref name="Bodleian"/> On his death, [[Clifford Dupont]], serving as Officer Administering the Government since [[Rhodesia's Unilateral Declaration of Independence]] on 11 November 1965, observed: "Some day the story will be told of how much this country owes to Mr. Winston Field, who devoted his whole life to the good of Rhodesia. I, myself, have lost a friend, and I join Rhodesians everywhere in mourning the passing of this great patriot."<ref name="Commentary">{{cite journal |title=Former Prime Minister was a great patriot |journal=Rhodesian Commentary |date=7 April 1969 |volume=3 |issue=7 |page=2 |url=https://www.rhodesia.me.uk/wp-content/uploads/Rhodesian-Commentary-07.04.69-Vol3-7.pdf |access-date=11 April 2021}}</ref>

==Honours==
{| class="wikitable"
|-
| || Retention of ''[[The Honourable]]'' for life. || 19 May 1964<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=43367|date=26 June 1964|supp=|page=5540}}</ref> 
|-
|[[File:UK Order St-Michael St-George ribbon.svg|60px]] || Companion of the [[Order of St Michael and St George]] (CMG) || [[1962 Birthday Honours|QB 1962]]<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=42688|date=25 May 1962|supp=6|page=4357}}</ref> 
|-
|[[File:Order of the British Empire (Military) Ribbon.svg|60px]] || Member of the [[Order of the British Empire]] (MBE; Military Division) || 1944
|}

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{s-start}}
{{s-par|frn}}
{{s-bef|before=Neville Barrett}}
{{s-ttl|title=Member of Federal Parliament for [[Murewa|Mrewa]]|years=1957 – 1962}}
{{s-aft|after=}}
{{s-par|srh-la}}
{{s-bef|before=Peter Heaton Grey}}
{{s-ttl|title=Member of Parliament for Marandellas|years=1962 – 1965}}
{{s-aft|after=[[David Smith (Rhodesian politician)|David Smith]]}}
{{s-off}}
{{s-bef|before= [[Edgar Whitehead|Sir Edgar Whitehead]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Prime Minister of Rhodesia|Prime Minister of Southern Rhodesia]]|years=1962 – 1964}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Ian Smith]]}}
{{s-bef|before= [[Cyril Hatty]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=Minister of the Public Service|years=1962 – 1964}}
{{s-aft|after=[[William Harper (Rhodesian politician)|William Harper]]}}
{{s-new}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Zimbabwe)|Minister of External Affairs]] [[Ministry of Defence (Zimbabwe)|and Defence]]|years=1964}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Ian Smith]]}}
{{s-end}}

{{ZimbabwePMs}}
{{Zimbabwe-Ministers of Foreign Affairs}}
{{Zimbabwe-Ministers of Defence}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Field, Winston}}
[[Category:1904 births]]
[[Category:1969 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Bromsgrove]]
[[Category:White Rhodesian people]]
[[Category:Southern Rhodesian military personnel of World War II]]
[[Category:British Army personnel of World War II]]
[[Category:Durham Light Infantry officers]]
[[Category:Prime ministers of Rhodesia]]
[[Category:Foreign ministers of Rhodesia]]
[[Category:Defence ministers of Rhodesia]]
[[Category:Rhodesian Front politicians]]
[[Category:Companions of the Order of St Michael and St George]]
[[Category:Members of the Order of the British Empire]]
[[Category:Members of the Rhodesia and Nyasaland Federal Assembly]]
[[Category:Members of the Legislative Assembly of Southern Rhodesia]]
[[Category:British anti-communists]]
[[Category:British emigrants to Southern Rhodesia]]
[[Category:British white supremacists]]
[[Category:Zimbabwean people of English descent]]
[[Category:Rhodesian anti-communists]]
[[Category:Dominion Party politicians]]
[[Category:Military personnel from Worcestershire]]
[[Category:British military personnel who were court-martialled]]