Charles Emerson Winchester III was born in
Boston ,
Massachusetts , a third generation of a very wealthy family of
Boston Brahmins who are anti-
FDR Republicans. After completing his secondary studies at
Choate , he graduated ''
Summa Cum Laude '' class of '43 from
Harvard Medical School in Boston (where he lettered in Crew and Polo) and worked at
Massachusetts General Hospital . Before he was
Drafted to join the
US Army at the start of the
Korean War , he was on track to become Chief of
Thoracic Surgery , although he shows apparent interest in
Heart Surgery he claims to be an expert in
Pediatrics .
Winchester had a sister named Honoria (pronounced ah-NOR-ee-uh), and a brother named Timmy who had died when Charles was very young. In another episode, it was revealed he had a nephew named Felix, although it is not made clear if this is Honoria's son or another sibling's. In another episode, he made a tape-recorded message in which he mentioned a cousin, Alfred, making two provisions to his will: that his mother not use his shares to vote for Alfred and that Honoria receive his butterfly collection instead of "cousin Alfred".
As presented in the series, he is tall, stocky, and losing his hair, and speaks in a
Boston Brahmin Accent . He also suffers from a bad back.
While
Major Frank Burns was
AWOL following a trip to
Seoul after the marriage of
Major Margaret Houlihan to
Lieutenant Colonel Donald Penobscot , the staff at the 4077th
Mobile Army Surgical Hospital (MASH) desperately needed a replacement surgeon to fill in.
Colonel Sherman T. Potter placed a call to
Tokyo General Hospital in search of a surgeon. An old friend of Col. Potter's,
Lt. Colonel Horace Baldwin , was the commanding officer, and eagerly volunteered Winchester, who had just irritated Baldwin in beating him at
Cribbage . Colonel Baldwin reassured Winchester that the assignment would only be for forty-eight hours.
Once Winchester arrived, he found the conditions appalling compared to the comfortable life he enjoyed at Tokyo General. Although his arrogance made a poor first impression, Winchester proved his surgical expertise when he performed a delicate heart operation on a ventricular
Aneurysm which the other doctors were unfamiliar with.
When it was learned that Major Burns would not be returning (being sent back to the United States, and assigned to a
Veterans Administration hospital near his hometown), Colonel Potter asked to have Winchester permanently assigned to the unit. This granted, first
Radar O'Reilly , then Potter, broke the news to Winchester. He was shocked at first, and attempted to bribe and threaten Potter, but his pleas fell on deaf ears. Very reluctantly, moved into Burns' former quarters with
Pierce and
Hunnicutt , declaring his plans to use family influence to transfer back out.
When the first major rush of wounded arrived, Winchester found himself in over his head once he began operating, taking three or four times as long to finish his operations as his fellow surgeons. He learned that his slow, methodical surgery was unsuited to the gross amount of patients he had to operate on, as well as the long hours into the early morning. As a result, he was forced to learn to perform "
Meatball Surgery " from his new colleagues in order to be efficient. (He eventually made an effective transition, even criticizing other visiting surgeons if they operated slowly.)
Winchester felt humiliated at any assistance to improve his efficiency and alienated himself from the rest of the camp with his arrogant, self-centered, and at times, cold persona. He did, however, prove to have a sense of humor and a clever wit, which were not above pranks.
Charles at first continually fought his position with the 4077th, especially when he realized that he lost his candidacy for Chief of
Thoracic Surgery at Boston General, but as time passed he accepted his situation and settled in with the 4077th. Although initially thought of as tremendously selfish and uncaring, as evidenced by his disconnected attitude towards his patients in contrast to the "bleeding heart" cynicism of Pierce and Hunnicutt, Charles softened somewhat as he acclimated to his new life. This was strengthened by a Christmas present arranged by
Radar O'Reilly and
Father Mulcahy ; his old
Toboggan ing cap, sent by his mother at their request, which he wore frequently. However, he still distanced himself from the rest of the camp to some degree, and regularly retreated to his
Classical Music as a refuge.
As time went on, he seemed to maintain his arrogant, dignified attitude as a kind of caricature of itself, using it to hide his genuine feelings. Charles is usually warm toward the patients he speaks with, and indulges in acts of kindness such as Major Burns would never have done.
- Charles convinces a drafted concert Pianist , who had given up on the future after losing Dexterity in his right hand, that his musical gift did not lie in the stilled hand, but rather within him. He gave the wounded man the famous left-handed pieces by Maurice Ravel ('' Piano Concerto For The Left Hand '' which had been written for Paul Wittgenstein ) and restored the wounded man's pride and hope, telling him, "I can ''play'' the ''notes'', but I cannot ''make'' the ''music''."
- He followed his family's tradition by giving the local orphanage a large supply of candy for Christmas, insisting that the orphanage director not tell anyone who donated it. Upon learning that the director had sold the candy instead of distributing it among the kids, Charles was at first outraged, but the director explained that the candy would have only given the children pleasure for a day; the real value was the month's supply of staple foods it could pay for. Charles, ashamed at his nearsightedness, acknowledged that it was "cruelty to offer dessert to a child who has had no meal". Klinger, overhearing the exchange, saved for Charles the last of the camp's holiday fare, and told Charles warmly "the source of this food must remain anonymous."
- He befriended a wounded soldier who Stuttered . When Charles saw him ridiculed by his Commanding Officer and platoon mates, he took their CO to one side and thoroughly chastised him. He then counselled the stuttering soldier, who believed himself stupid ("I can't even t-t-talk") and read only Comic Book s. Charles encouraged the soldier to pursue his natural intelligence (pointing out high test scores in the young man's personnel file, and that many great people were stutterers, such as Thomas Jefferson ). Charles gave the solider his treasured, leather-bound copy of '' Moby-Dick ''. (The soldier already knew the story - from the '' Classics Illustrated '' comic-book adaptation.) At the end of the episode, Charles listened to a taped letter sent by his sister, Honoria, revealing that she, too, was a habitual stutterer.
- When Colonel Baldwin visited the 4077th on business, Winchester swallowed his pride and anger to convince Baldwin to return him to Toyko General Hospital, even deliberately losing at cribbage to erase Baldwin's debt and promising to find Baldwin an escort. When Baldwin mistook Houlihan for a Prostitute and nearly succeeded in assaulting her, he told Winchester to lie and tell Potter that ''she'' had made improper advances on ''him'', using Tokyo as an incentive. When confronted by Potter, he revealed the truth that Baldwin was "lying through his teeth", stating he refused to smear the name of a friend and colleague by bearing false witness against her.
- When a Congressional investigator with the HUAC falsely smeared Houlihan as a Communist , Winchester chastised the official. When the investigator attempted to suggest Winchester was a Fellow Traveler , Winchester smugly stated that his family was so Conservative that they made the investigator look like a Roosevelt New Deal er. Furthermore, Winchester participated in a trap to force the hypocrite into leaving Houlihan alone.
When the people at the 4077th answered letters from the children in Hawkeye's home town of Crabapple Cove, Charles picked up a letter that made him pause. It was from a little girl who had included a
Birch leaf, it being
Autumn in
New England . The child had written, "I hope you like it." The simple gift struck a tender chord in Charles, and, unwilling to share this with Hawkeye and Hunnicutt, he used pen and paper instead of his usual tape recorder, and composed a heartfelt reply to the child's letter.
Unlike Burns, Winchester was a superior surgeon whose obvious, almost natural skills indicated earlier on that his intelligence was superior to that of his predecessor, giving Winchester an advantage in his clashes with Hawkeye and B.J. that Burns had lacked - they could not seriously criticize him as a doctor, and he was quite capable of being sneaky and underhanded and "playing dirty".
Like Burns, Winchester was prone to being a
Chauvinist , though Winchester's bias was more towards socioeconomic status than race. (He did, however, denigrate
Italians ,
Native Americans ,
Arabs and the
Irish , offending
Zale , Potter,
Klinger , and Mulcahy in the process.) He mocked
Radar O'Reilly 's rural life and values, though he praised Radar's strong family relationships. He also
sometimes made remarks about
Catholic s,
Buddhist s, and
Revival Tent -style religion, preferring the services at his Presbyterian church in Boston.
While Winchester's faults caused irritation, Charles eventually made partial peace with his comrades, and they counted him as one of their friends. When Hawkeye was anxiously awaiting word about his father, who had undergone surgery for a life-threatening condition, Charles kept a vigil with him. He revealed to Hawkeye his envy of the close relationship Hawkeye and his father shared in stark contrast to that with his own father, stating, "Whereas I have a ''father'', you have a ''dad''," and "My father and I have been ten thousand miles apart in the ''same room''," helping lessen the distance and anxiety Hawkeye felt.
He often displayed his fear of war and the question of life after death, and in one poignant episode, Winchester deliberately set himself at the front line. Questioning a patient who was mortally injured, in a fruitless attempt to discover what might await anyone close to death, Winchester asked what the patient was experiencing. The patient's only semi-comatose response was that he could smell bread.
Winchester took his nominal second-in-command position far less seriously than Frank Burns ever had; on the rare occasions when Potter left him in charge, Charles usually let the camp go through its paces and everyone have what they wanted as long as Charles in turn got what ''he'' wanted (usually a personal favor, or simply time alone). In addition, on occasions when Hawkeye was left in charge for varying reasons (once including Winchester's own insistence that he was not up to the task), he did not take offense. (However, the ''first'' time he was camp CO, though, he went overboard on ordering creature comforts.)
Winchester always took his personal standard as a physician very seriously, even egotistically painting himself to be the best surgeon in the room, setting himself up for humiliation, throwing a temper tantrum twice: once, when a female surgeon proved herself his equal, and when a younger, more intelligent surgeon taught Winchester a new surgical technique. In one episode he derided local
Buddhist Korean physicians that came to see the methods used by the 4077th, making snide comments as to their traditional methods and calling them
Moe, Larry And Curly . After one practitioner cured Winchester of a back problem using
Acupuncture , he apologised deeply, whereupon one quipped, "Not bad for Three Stooges, eh?"
His medical high standards came into play when he had to make an inspection of a neighboring Army unit in a poor mood and unwilling to concede the realities of life at the front. Its standards of cleanliness were so low that he gave it an approval rating of "zero" on the grounds he couldn't give it anything lower.
His romantic relationships included:
- Flirted with a visiting nurse and offered to share a bottle of wine with her.
- Hawkeye read a love note from Winchester to a woman in Tokyo.
- Went out on a "date" with Nurse Kellye to the mess tent while Private Paul Conway, a recovering injured soldier, worked as a cook making gourmet delights for the 4077th.
- Was attracted to a "working girl" at Rosie's Bar, but gave it up when he realized she was not interested in him.
- Was "married" while drunk in Tokyo, but it turned out to be a non-existent sham; the camp held an anti-marriage for the two. ("Do you take this lady to be your unlawfully wed un-wife?")
- Came very close to making a commitment to a French woman, but he reluctantly gave it up when he realized his family would never approve of her Bohemian lifestyle.
Once during the series, Winchester found a British officer who had similar
Blue Blood taste, even becoming envious that the man had more experience and loftier standards and experiences than him. At the end, Winchester was taught a lesson when the man smugly told him that he had those experiences as a butler's son on a wealthy English estate, and insinuated that Winchester's repeated attempts to try to one-up him were ego and
Masochism (all to Hawkeye's delight, who bursts out laughing.) Winchester was initially offended but attempted the lesson in humility with some
Self-deprecation .
When Hawkeye was writing his
Last Will And Testament while trapped at a
Battalion Aid Station , he wrote:
In contrast to his normally posh tastes, Charles enjoyed occasional ''
Tom And Jerry '' cartoons, ''
The Three Stooges '' shorts (which he regarded as
Surrealistic ), and ''
Captain Marvel '' comics. In fact, in his first appearance, Charles was relaxing in the Swamp listening to
Mozart as Hawkeye and B.J. came in. Hawkeye laid down on his cot and screamed, finding the rubber snake he had initially planted in Charles' cot, while B.J. splashed himself with his own prank that had been aimed at Charles. Hawkeye turned to Charles and smirkingly said, "Clever! Very clever!" Charles replied with dignity, "Please -- ''Mozart''."
Furthermore, he engaged in a few pranks, including one episode where
Colonel Flagg visited the camp and Charles planted 'evidence' to lead him on a
Wild Goose Chase , wherein Flagg became convinced that conspirators were meeting in the guise of a bridge game. "The 'conspirators' included Hawkeye, Colonel Potter, the Mayor of
Uijeongbu , and the chief of police, who were not amused at Flagg's accusations. When Hawkeye questioned Charles, Charles demurely stated that he wasn't the type to pull pranks, unless it was good for a laugh. He also once used a
Dummy Grenade to clear out the Officer's Club so he, Hawkeye, B.J., Klinger, and Soo Lee could get a table. In practical jokes, Winchester was a master manipulator.
Despite Winchester stating that he didn't care about the
Red Sox - he considered
Baseball a "lower-class sport" - he became a baseball expert when he placed a huge
Bet on the
Brooklyn Dodgers not blowing their 13-1/2 game lead during the
1951 season, only to lose all his money during the three-game playoff, when
Bobby Thomson Hit His Famous Pennant-winning Home Run .
In another episode, Hawkeye and B.J. tried to get the
Otto Preminger film ''
The Moon Is Blue '' which, because of its supposed "lurid content", had been
Banned In Boston . Winchester chuckled at this notion and tries to give them a discreet warning to keep their expectations in check by telling them Boston would ban ''
Pinocchio ''.
- A---S---H_episode)" class="copylinks">Goodbye, Farewell And Amen '', Winchester encountered a group of five Chinese soldier-musicians, the equivalent of a small Unit Band . They eagerly surrendered to him as Prisoners Of War , and were held at a makeshift POW Camp at the 4077th. When they played Traditional Music , Winchester furiously confronted them, explaining that he was trying to listen to Mozart on his phonograph. Recognizing the composer's name, they then began to play a crude rendition of Mozart 's '' Quintet For Clarinet And Strings ''. Winchester, delighted at the idea of being able to listen to a live rendition of classical music, began to spend considerable time trying to improve their performance. However, Charles learned that the musicians have to be transferred in a POW exchange with the Chinese Red Army along with the rest of the captives at the 4077th, and pleaded the military officer coordinating the effort to allow them to stay; the officer refused. As they departed, the musicians played the piece of Mozart that Charles had taught them as they were driven away from the back of the truck.
Several hours later, Charles was devastated to discover one of the final patients in
Triage was one of the musicians. Charles asked the
Corpsman if any other prisoners had survived, but was informed that the dying man was "the only one that made it this far." Charles, sadly and bitterly, remarked, "He wasn't a soldier. He was a ''musician''."
Retreating to his tent, Charles attempted to find solace in a record of ''Quintet for Clarinet and Strings'' but after only a few moments of listening, he wordlessly yanked the record off the phonograph and smashed it. The at Boston Mercy Hospital, so my life will go on pretty much as I expected... with one exception. For me, music has always been a refuge from this miserable experience... now, it will always be a reminder."
Margaret had used her connections to arrange Charles' position at Boston Mercy. At first, Charles refused the help, expressing that he wanted a position based on his own merits. His confession, at the supper, that he would accept the position was a pleasant surprise to Margaret, whom he thanked just before leaving, giving her a book she treasured that he'd initially refused to let her take back to the States with her.
With the 4077th packing up and the personnel moving out to return home, Charles left the camp with
Rizzo in the last remaining vehicle: a garbage truck. When Rizzo pulled up in the truck, he apologized, "I hope you don't mind riding in a garbage truck, but it's the last vehicle I got", to which Winchester replied, "Not at all. What better way to leave a garbage dump!" Charles bade Hawkeye and B.J. farewell, bowing and uttering his trademark, "Gentlemen", in his typical Boston drawl, retaining his dignity to the end. Yet Winchester emerged from his experiences as a surgeon at the 4077th a changed man, and returned home a more caring, open-minded human being despite his upper class facade.
"Know this. You can cut me off from the civilized world. You can incarcerate me with two moronic cellmates. You can torture me with your thrice daily swill, but you cannot break the spirit of a Winchester. My voice shall be heard from this wilderness and I shall be delivered from this fetid and festering sewer!"
"I've groveled! I have endured your insufferable
Cribbage playing! I have kissed your brass! But I WILL NOT, even for a return to that pearl of the orient Tokyo, lie to protect you while destroying a friend's career!"
"I do one thing, I do it very well, and then I move on."
"Gentlemen." {Posh accent}
"Pierce, you remind me of a dog we once had. He, too, was cheerful in the mornings. So we gave him to some Japanese immigrants. And they ate him."
"I've heard snappier comebacks from a bowl of
Rice Krispies ."
"I will criticize Pierce, I will ridicule him, I will even humiliate him. But I will ''not spy on him!''" (to Colonel Flagg)
"Mr. Williamson-''there is no life after Boston''!"
"Be it ever so crumbled, there is no place like home."
(to a raving AWOL Italian soldier)"My good man, I have better things to do than to stand here and listen to someone make no sense in two languages!....(after being told their next meeting won't be as pleasant)"Well, this one has been enchanting, let me assure you. I can hardly wait for the next one. I shall be anxiously counting the decades!"(after which Charles, without thinking, walks onto a floor of wet cement in the O.R.)
(taping a message to be sent home to his parents) "Father, you must know someone influential who can get me out of this cesspool. Talk to Senator Griswold. After all, you paid good money for him!"
"Finally, a peaceful moment to conclude this tape. The would-be lothario Pierce is fast asleep, and the 38-hour day is done. Now, Mother and Father, I will put this as eloquently, and succinctly, as I can....(attempts to pour a cup of tea, but finds the a rubber chicken in the pot instead)
- It might require a bit of Suspension Of Disbelief on the viewer's part to reconcile Winchester's sincere desire to return to Massachusetts General Hospital and ''no other'' hospital, with the final episode in which he plans to go to Boston Mercy, saying there is no other hospital in Boston.
- Although first introduced in the sixth season of the series as Charles Emerson Winchester, the suffix "The Third" (III) was not used as part of the character's name until episode 18 of the seventh season.
- Another Suspension Of Disbelief was when Winchester remarked he graduated from Harvard in 1943, and the irrational lieutenant claimed he went ROTC in college to avoid the service and was sent to Korea after graduating from Yale Class of 1948.
- ---Both would have been subject to the Draft during World War II 1941-1945, not Korea.
- In another episode, Winchester claimed he last saw a dentist "seven" years ago, contradicting a previous episode where he suffered a broken tooth after being hit in the jaw by a drunken C.O.
- In an eighth season episode, Potter smashed Winchester's phonograph and opera records, yet Winchester played his records on the phonograph in succeeding episodes throughout the series to the last episode.
- Winchester had a fear of guns, yet he brought a sporting shotgun with him to Korea.
- Winchester had some similar traits with Major -although in Winchester's case that would be an anachronism-a "Boston Blueblood" would have belonged to an "established church"-such as a Congregationalist .
Winchester's other interests include:
