Stoke Lacy Heritage

 

Private William Newman, aged 34

​

By a cruel twist of fate, less than two months after the death of Robert James, his cousin, Private William Newman, died as a result of injuries he had sustained two years earlier.

 

William Newman was born at Canon Pyon on 16 October 1883, the second child of John and Emma Newman. William’s father died of heart disease when William was five. 

 

By 1911 William Newman, a waggoner, was living at Yew Tree Cottage with his aunt, uncle, and cousin, the aforementioned Robert James. In June 1916, he was posted to Egypt, arriving on 9 July 1916. Twenty five days later William Newman fought in the major battle of the campaign, at Romani, 23 miles east of the Suez Canal. He was wounded in the shoulder, head and mind.

 

Repatriated, he was hospitalised with shell shock in November 1916. Soon after this the first signs of lung problems became apparent. From March 1917 he undertook agricultural work, until, on 8 May 1918, he was admitted to the Military Hospital, Wrexham as a tuberculosis patient. He remained there until his death.

 

William Newman’s military pension began on 15 June 1918; he died two weeks later, on 2 July 1918, aged 34. He is buried in Stoke Lacy churchyard.

​

​

​

​

​

​