Melbourne Law School - Research Publications

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A layman's triumph

Park, M. M. ( 1989)

Colonel Alfred Daniel Wintle was the quintessential Englishman. He was an infuriating chauvinistic (in the true sense of the word) eccentric bachelor-soldier who exemplified the expression “old woman” to describe a man. When he was not busy being patriotic he saw the whole of life through his monocle as one long mess-night lark. Perhaps, had the late Sir Alan Herbert learnt of Wintle’s existence earlier, he would not have found it necessary to invent Albert Haddock. He was an outdated Colonel Blimp figure and believer in the superiority of all things English at a time when the sun was beginning to set on the British Empire and Britannia no longer ruled the waves. The title of his posthumously published autobiography (“The Last Englishman”, 1968) was well-chosen. The author here relates this little man’s successful conduct of his own legal case in the House of Lords — a victory that Wintle never doubted was his due or within his grasp.