Compiled by Russell Bastedo
State Curator
1998

John G. Winant (1925-1927; 1931-1935). Born New York City; Concord (NH) schoolteacher. In state politics from 1916.

Winant (1889-1947) attended St. Paul's School, Concord and Princeton University. Described as shy and inarticulate (by Leon Anderson, New Hampshire legislative historian, now deceased), Winant appears to have also suffered from self-doubt and depression, though the latter was not a diagnosis at the time.

In 1913 Winant was appointed an instructor in history at St. Paul's School. He taught there until 1917 when he enlisted in the American Expeditionary Force of World War One. He had been elected to the New Hampshire General Court (1916), and to the legislature (1917) despite his quiet and unassertive nature, but he responded to the call for volunteers to go to France.

Returning to teaching at St. Paul's after his service in the A.E.F. (1919), Winant was elected to the State Senate (1920), and to the legislature (1922). He won the Republican primary and won the election in November. [In 1925 he received M.A. degrees from both Princeton and Dartmouth; the University of New Hampshire bestowed an L.I.D. degree in 1926.]

Winant's 1920s profits from oil stocks were suddenly eliminated in 1929. St. Paul's School must also have suffered a decline in revenues. In September 1930 Winant entered the Republican direct primary for governor and won. He defeated Democrat Albert W. Noone in the general election, becoming the first man to serve more than one two-year term as governor of New Hampshire. [Winant won a third term as governor in 1932.]

The Great Depression was a true national emergency, and it demanded emergency corrective measures. In New Hampshire Governor Winant worked for passage of laws to provide relief for mothers and dependent children. He oversaw an emergency credit act which allowed the state to guarantee debts of municipalities, so that local governments could continue. A minimum wage act for women and children was enacted. The state's poor relief efforts were centralized. Winant pushed to keep improving the state's highways while reorganizing the state banking commission and pursuing more accurate accounting of state agencies' funds. Working closely with the federal government, Winant was the first of the states' governors to fill his enrollment quota in the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps). He cooperated fully also with the National Planning Board.

Republican Winant's efforts to cooperate fully with the Democratic Roosevelt administration did not go unappreciated. Following his governorship, Winant was appointed (1935) to be assistant director of the International Labor Organization (ILO) in Geneva, Switzerland. He was brought back to Washington to head the new Social Security Administration, then (1937) sent back to the ILO in Switzerland. In 1940 Winant was appointed Ambassador to The Court of St. James (London), replacing Joseph P. Kennedy whose pro-Nazi sympathies had become intolerable to the British government. Winant proved a welcome replacement.

During World War II Winant helped plan the 1943 conference in Moscow which led to the Teheran meeting of the heads of Allied governments, and he was a member of the commission which eventually defined the zones of Allied forces' occupations of post-war Germany.

Winant resigned his ambassadorship in March 1946. President Truman appointed Winant U.S. representative to the new United Nations Economic & Social Council (UNESCO), but Winant soon retired to Concord to write his memoirs. He committed suicide November 3, 1947 and is buried at St. Paul's School.

Location: State House, Second Floor
Portrait by Ruth L. Berry, (1909-1980), 1951