Born on the 6th of April 1829, the son of Samuel Pratt Winter, Esq., of Aghar, J.P. and a Deputy-Sheriff, of Co. Meath , and his wife, Lucy, the daughter of James Sanderson, Esq., of Clover Hill.
According to valuation records his father was a land-owner of some 1,157 acres, including a house and grounds of 782 acres.
Educated at Rugby School.
Cornet in the 17th Lancers: 16th of June 1848.
Lieutenant, 17th Lancers: 16th of July 1849.
Captain, 17th Lancers: 14th of May 1852.
Aide-de-Camp to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in 1853.
Killed-in-action at Balaclava.
Captain Winter served the Eastern campaign of 1854, including the affair at MacKenzie's Farm and the battles of the Alma, Balaclava, and the Siege of Sebastopol. (Medal and Clasps.)
Rode in command of "E" Troop, leading the second squadron as the squadron of direction. He was last seen amongst the guns, laying about him with his sword, and his horse, badly hit by grape-shot, was one of the first to gallop back to the English lines. He also led the attack on Mackenzie's Farm, where several prisoners were taken, as well as a quantity of baggage.
Entitled to the Crimean medal with clasps for Alma, Balaclava and Sebastopol and the Turkish Medal.
A Crimean medal "named" to him, appeared as an exhibit in a trial held at Manchester in July of 1977 when two Midland medal-dealers were convicted of falsifying the naming on previously un-named Crimean medals) to officers and men of the Light Brigade, known to have taken part in the Charge, but the whereabouts of whose medals was unknown. It has since been said that this medal was returned to the dealer complainant by the police.
A pair of hooves were removed from Captain Winter's charger after it had been killed at Balaclava [sic] and converted into inkwells. These are now in the Regimental Museum. [PB: I have not been able to locate these.]
Killed-in-action at Balaclava.
A book entitled "Our Heroes in the Crimea" by George Ryan, published in London in 1855, stated that:
"John Pratt Winter was Samuel Winter's eldest son, and that he was the first member of the British cavalry to land in Turkey during the Crimean War. It also states that Winter had temporary command of his regiment during the illness of its Colonel and Major and was killed at the Russian guns, just as the British retreat was sounded."
868 Sergeant William Purvis of the 17th said in an interview many years later that Captain Winter was a very tall man, standing 6 feet three inches, and, having a very badly gathered finger [?], had his arm in a sling during the charge.
The white marble memorial tablet (high on a wall) erected to him in the parish church at Aghar, Ireland, is inscribed:
"Sacred to the memory of John Pratt Winter, Esq., Captain in her Majesty's 17th Regiment of Light Dragoons (Lancers). He fell gloriously leading the second squadron of his regiment in the heroic but disastrous charge of the Light Cavalry Brigade on the Russian Army at Balaclava before Sebastopol in the Crimea, 25th of October 1854, in the 26th year of his age. 'Leaving in battle, no blot on his name, Looked proudly to heaven, to the death-bed of fame.'"
There is a family tomb/vault in the churchyard at Aghar, Co. Meath, and in 1995 was in a derelict condition inside, being used as a rubbish tip and containing old and broken pews, tables and other rubbish. Some clearance enabled photographs to be taken of plaques commemorating his father and mother and other members of his greater family.
His name appears on a large stained glass window which represents the good Centurion at the foot of the Cross and placed in the Chapel of Rugby School to the 33 "Old Boys" who fell in the Crimean War:
"John Pratt Winter, Captain, 17th Lancers, aged 26 years. Killed in the Light Cavalry Charge at Balaclava, Oct. 25th 1854."