Winston Rose Maxwell was born on June 6, 1905, in Tuscaloosa, Tuscaloosa County, Alabama. He was the son of Farley and Maude Rose Maxwell. He was married to Phyllis Parmenter. After attending Tuscaloosa High School, Marion Institute, and the University of Alabama, he entered West Point in 1926 and graduated in 1930, choosing the Infantry. His prewar service took him to Texas, Georgia, Hawaii, Washington, and eventually to the Ordnance Department at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland.

At the outbreak of World War II, Maxwell was stationed in the Philippines with the Ordnance Department for the Air Corps at Nichols Field near Manila. He fought at Bataan, was captured after Corregidor fell, and endured imprisonment at PW Camp #2 in Davao and later at Cabanatuan. In December 1944, he was among the POWs loaded onto the Oryoku Maru, which was bombed in Subic Bay. Though he survived the attack, he died of his wounds on January 14, 1945.

Maj Maxwell's name is memorialized in the Tablets of the Missing in the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial, Manila, Capital District, National Capital Region, Philippines.

Source of information: www.findagrave.com, weremember.abmc.gov, alumni.westpointaog.org