Sergeant Alfred Winson was the son of George and Sarah Winson, born in about 1890, from Belper, Derbyshire. Before enlisting with the Sherwood Foresters, he was a Coal Miner Hewer. 

 He served with the 1/8th Battalion during the Great War. Alfred was awarded the Military Medal for gallantry and devotion to duty during an attack on the village of Regnicourt on the 17th of October 1918. This would later be recorded in the London Gazette on the 17th of June 1919.