Name
William Alexander Newbery
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
Pirton School Memorial
Biography
There appear to be several spellings of the surname, i.e. Newbery, Newberry and Newbury, but Newbery is believed to be the correct spelling for William.
William appears on the School War Memorial, confirming that he attended the school. Parish records suggest only one man of this name who could have served, and he was born on October 15th 1889 to William and Ellen Newbery. William his father was the village blacksmith operating from Great Green and had been a church warden for twenty-six years. William would have been twenty-four at the outbreak of war. Baptism records list three children: Ellen (bapt 1891), William Alexander (b 1889) and John Norman (b 1892). William’s younger brother, John (Norman), also served and survived.
The Hertfordshire Express of October 27th 1917 reports that before the war William held ‘an important position as teacher, in the Licensed Vituallers School, London.’ He must have already enlisted by this date as it adds that he had ‘come home preparatory to joining the Forces’. The Hertfordshire Express of November 17th 1917, just three issues later, reports him ‘has(sic) Dover Castle’ (presumably stationed at Dover Castle) – this could be the H.M.H.S (Hospital Ship) Dover Castle. In fact his son Ted confirms that William was in the Royal Army Pay Corps stationed at Dover. Ted also informs us that before the war, he was studying German and Russian at Königsberg University, which was then in East Prussia, but is now Kaliningrad in Russia and that he was repatriated to England when war broke out.
Acknowledgments
Text from the book ‘The Pride of Pirton’ by Jonty Wild, Tony French & Chris Ryan used with author's permission, Ted Newbery (nephew)
