The third son of Richard Winkfield, of London. He was apprenticed to William Thurnall, of Bedford, where he was a pupil at the Infirmary before he entered St Bartholomew's Hospital. He dressed for Sir William Lawrence and Sir James Paget and clerked for Sir George Burrows. Dr Edward B Gray was elected Physician to the Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford, in 1860, after having served two years as 'House Surgeon Apothecary', and Alfred Winkfield applied for the post which was advertised under the altered title of 'House Surgeon'. The election was made at a Special General Court and was hotly contested, 109 governors voting for Winkfield and 80 voting for Sissons. Winkfield had previously done duty when Gray was on a holiday. He held office from 1860-1869, but was not elected Surgeon until 1878, and resigned in 1900. In 1870 he matriculated as an unattached student. He never graduated, but in 1902 the University conferred upon him the honorary degree of MA after he had been Litchfield Lecturer on Surgery in 1883-1884, 1889-1890, and 1896-1897. He was Medical Officer of Health for the City of Oxford from 1872-1892 and was Surgeon to the Great Western Railway. From 1900 onwards he lived in retirement at 26 Beaumont Street and was a director of the Randolph Hotel and of Grimbly Hughes & Co. He married Rosalie Anna, daughter of Captain Wilson, of Yorkshire, by whom he had one son who died young. Winkfield died suddenly at Oxford on May 3rd, 1917. In his early days he was a keen cricketer and an excellent lawn-tennis player, but he never shone as a surgeon.