Fred Wimbush (April 25, 1920–January 14, 1949)

By Gramond S. McPherson

Fred Wimbush served during World War II in the Army where he achieved the rank of Private.¹ Wimbush was born in Emanuel County, Georgia, to George and Ella Wimbush. He had at least four brothers and two sisters. Wimbush’s father George supported the family working as a farmer.² After his father’s death during the 1920s, Wimbush’s mother married Henry Hadden. By 1930, Wimbush and his family relocated to Lyons, Georgia, where his stepfather Henry worked in the naval-store industry processing forest products.³ By 1935, the family relocated again to Saint Augustine, Florida. By 1940, Wimbush’s mother Ella, now widowed again, supported the family working as a cook and maid. Wimbush, now twenty-years-old, helped support his family through working odd jobs, as seen here. Wimbush continued to live in Saint Augustine until he joined the military.⁴

On July 14, 1943, Wimbush enlisted in the Army where he reported to duty at Camp Blanding near Starke, Florida. He eventually served with Company H as part of the Twenty-Fifth Infantry Regiment of the Ninety-Third Division.⁵ Wimbush and his regiment arrived in the Pacific Theater during March of 1944 serving in both a labor and combat capacity. In areas such as the Solomon Islands and New Guinea islands, the Twenty-Fifth engaged in labor detail at docks and warehouses, constructed fortifications, and defended military installations. Additionally, Wimbush and the Twenty-Fifth conducted limited offensive operations against the Japanese for some time as each of the regiment’s battalions became attached to one of the Army’s Americal Division regiments. After the official Japanese surrender in September of 1945, Wimbush and his regiment arrived in the Philippines in October of 1945 before returning to San Francisco, California in February of 1946.⁶ On November 29, 1946, Wimbush received an honorable discharge from the Army.⁷

After the war ended, Wimbush returned to Saint Augustine where he is listed in the local city directory in 1947, as seen here.⁸ On January 14, 1949, Wimbush passed away at the age of twenty-eight. He was interred at the Saint Augustine National Cemetery in Section E, Plot 25.⁹

 

 

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