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John Gilbert Winant (1889 - 1947)

John Gilbert Winant, a Republican, was appointed by President Franklin Roosevelt, a Democrat, to serve as United States Ambassador to Great Britain during World War II.  Winant was extremely popular with the British and supported very close ties between the two nations unlike his predecessor, Joseph  Kennedy, the father of John F. Kennedy.  During his service as ambassador, Winant was involved in the planning of international conferences, such as Teheran, which set the pattern for the post war world, and the planning of the occupation of Germany.  He entertained United States troops at the embassy and developed close relations with the British, from the common man in the street to the Royal Family.  After the war the king awarded him the Honour of Merit - he was only the second American to receive it.  At the ceremony the queen is reported to have said to him,  You deserved it more than anyone."

Winant had served three terms as governor of New Hampshire, and was one of the most significant governors of the century.  First elected in 1925, he was reelected for two terms in 1930 at the start of the Depression.  With New Hampshire citizens suffering, Winant saw a minimum wage for women and children enacted, credit extended to municipalities so they could continue to provide aid to unemployed, extension of the state highway building program to provide work, and, with the start of  the New Deal in Washington, cooperation with the federal government to support relief measures such as the CCC.  Unlike Republican Herbert Hoover, his philosophy of government was in line with the Progressive Republican philosophy introduced into the state at the start of the century by Robert Bass and others.  Winant saw the Depression as a national problem that required  national solutions.  Before the New Deal, Winant had offered his New Hampshire Plan in which workers with jobs would work four instead of six days a week, giving two days of work to unemployed individuals.  When the Social Security Act was passed, Winant was appointed  the first chair of the Social Security Board which established the operation of the program providing retirement and disability pay for millions of Americans over the years.  At the time, he was considered as a possible Republican candidate for president, but his support of the New Deal legislation lost him the opportunity to gain the Republican nomination.  He put public service ahead of personal ambition, as he did throughout his career.  After Winant's death, his friends organised as a memorial the Winant Volunteers, an organization that brought young American college age students to work with the disadvantaged in the slums of London.   This living memorial embodied the concerns and aspirations for which Winant had fought throughout his life.

Winant's interest in politics was strong.  While serving as assistant to Dr. Drury, the rector (headmaster) of St. Paul's School in Concord, New Hampshire, he arranged with the school to continue his school duties while he ran for the legislature.  He served in the state House of Representatives in 1917.  The United States entered World War I that spring, and at the end of the school year, Winant  sailed for France and enlisted as a private in the air force.  He became an expert flyer and rose to the rank of captain.  By the end of the war, he was commander of the 8th Observation Squadron whose task it was to fly low over the enemy lines looking for troop movements - a very dangerous mission.  After the war he returned to St. Paul's and again became active in state politics.  He was elected to the Senate in 1920 and to the House in 1922.  Throughout his terms in the legislature he championed bills limiting hours of work for women and children, the 48 hour work week, and reduction of the power of entrenched interests.  When elected governor at age 36 in 1924,  he was the youngest governor in the state's history.  He lost the election of l926 to the conservative wing of the Republican Party - times were good and the voters saw no need for reforms.  Also, Winant, who did not enjoy campaigning, believed the voters would reelect him on the basis of his work as governor.  Winant ran again in 1930 and won.  He became the first governor to serve two two-year terms.   Winant survived the Democratic landslide of 1932 to win a third term.

When workers at the Amoskeag Mills in Manchester went on strike in 1933, there was rioting, apparently provoked by the police.  Winant intervened and negotiated a solution.  Later, in 1934, Roosevelt asked Winant  to chair a committee of three  to negotiate a solution  to a national textile strike.   At stake was  the Textile Code of the National Recovery Administration (NRA) which was then the heart of the New Deal program for economic recovery.  A solution was reached.  In 1935 Winant was appointed the assistant director of the International Labor Organization (ILO) at the League of Nations headquarters in Geneva.  The ILO had been established by the Treaty of Versailles, which the U.S. Senate had rejected, but with the Depression, the U.S. joined the ILO in order to cooperate internationally on labor issues.  Later in 1935 Roosevelt asked Winant to head the Social Security Board and he left the ILO.  When Winant resigned as chair of the board in protest over Republican failure to support Social Security in the 1936 election,  Winant returned to the ILO.  He became its director in 1939, and led it during the difficult years of the outbreak of World War II in Europe.  These offices all reflect Winant's continual concern for fairness in the work place and his desire to "serve his fellow man."

After Winant resigned as ambassador to Great Britain, President Truman appointed him United States representative to UNESCO - the United Nations organization responsible for displaced persons and world wide economic recovery.   It was a time of growing tensions between the Soviets and the West - a time of discouragement to Winant who had great hopes for post war peace and reconciliation.

John Gilbert Winant was born in New York City on February 23, 1889.  His parents, Frederick and Jeanette Gilbert Winant, were moderately wealthy.  His parents divorced.  John was sent to boarding school at St. Paul's School where he struggled academically.  He had difficulty on tests, and, although he studied hard, could not commit to the test paper all that he knew.  Today he might have been diagnosed as having dyslexia of some form.  At a time when grades and college entrance were based on test grades, he suffered.  He enjoyed being with people and the rector often excused Winant from class so he could show people around the school.  At St. Paul's he received an award for compassion, which suggests this lifelong quality was identified early.  

Winant finally was accepted at Princeton University in 1908.  He left after four years, without graduating, but  the university gave him an honorary degree in 1925.   In  1919 Winant married Constance Rivington Russell, whose family he had known for some years.  Her family was very wealthy, with an extremely conservative economic and political philosophy.  Her grandfather, Percy Rivington Pyne, was President of National City Bank in New York and her father was a trustee of Princeton and a leading realtor in New York City.  Constance apparently knew little and cared less about the problems created by an industrialized, capitalist society.   As Winant's biographer, Bernard Bellush, indicates, John and Constance Winant throughout their lives  presented two contrasting views of life.  She was a  socialite enjoying city life,  parties, dog shows, and an ordered life following a regular schedule.  Upon the death of her mother, Constance received a minimum yearly income of $15,000 - a substantial sum in those days.  By contrast, John preferred the quiet  existence in the north country where he had dreams of living in a cabin.  He desired an active role in politics, was committed to the  Progressive Republican  philosophy espoused by Theodore Roosevelt and others, believed in  social welfare and in using the government to alleviate the suffering of the workers, and thought little of schedules or regular working hours.  His parents were unable to make him financially independent.  However, in spite of these differences, John and Constance Winant remained together until John's death in 1947.

The Winants had three children, Constance, John Jr, and Rivington.  All were educated at private schools.  Individuals still living in the Concord area recall good times growing up with the Winant children.  There was obvious affection between Winant and his children, but he was very busy politically, and the children were away at school much of the time.   Young Constance eloped with a Peruvian diplomat while studying in that country.   Both boys served in World War II.  John attended Oxford and married a girl from Switzerland.  Rivington, after fighting in the Pacific, graduated from Princeton University.

John Winant  followed a career that brought little economic security.  He invested in an oil exploration company in Texas organized by an army friend from Concord, Arthur Coyle.  It was successful for a time but with the Depression, Winant's finances became strained and remained so for the rest of his life giving him constant worry. 

Winant had what is considered a "Lincolnesque look" - tall, slightly stooped with a prominent chin, dark hair and  grey eyes.   He smiled easily.  He was a teetotaller until towards the end of his life.   He suffered from moments of what might be diagnosed as depression.  He always found public speaking difficult.  Those listening to his speeches saw the agony in his face as he struggled for words.  But his messages were such that people listened and followed him.  He found it difficult to keep to a schedule and remain organized, but his sympathy and concern for others always showed itself.  He felt deeply about people and the world. 

Winant received a contract to write a book about his wartime experiences, which he hoped would help his financial situation.  Although an excellent raconteur in small groups, he found writing a tremendous challenge.   On a trip to Geneva for John Jr's  wedding, he spoke often of  suicide and appeared depressed.  He returned to his home to finish the book,  Letter from Grosvenor Square. The first edition was waiting for him at the post office in Concord on November  3, 1947 when, at the age of 58, he committed suicide in young John's room from which there was a view of the New Hampshire hills he loved. 

WOK 2000

Sources:

Bellush, Bernard.  He Walked Alone: A Biography of John Gilbert Winant,  Studies in American History.  The Hague:  Mouton, 1968.

 "John Gilbert Winant."  Current Biography.    New York, NY:  H.W. Wilson, Co., 1941.

 "100 Who Shaped the Century,"  Concord Monitor.   December 16, 1999.

Winant, John Gilbert.  Letter From Grosvenor Square.  1947.