NEWMAN, Victor C

Victor Newman was the son of Mr and Mrs Newman of 17 Baylie Street, Stourbridge. He had started work at Webbs of Wordsley and had then become a clerk at the works of Ernest Stevens at Cradley Heath. He enlisted at Christmas 1914 in the Grenadier Guards and joined the 2nd Battalion. He went to France on the 15th July 1915 and had been through most of the major battles of the Western Front: Loos 1915, the later stages of the Somme 1916 and both Third Ypres and Cambrai in 1917. The Guards were then in the front line for the first German Spring offensive of the 21st March 1918 at St. Quentin. After surviving this onslaught the Grenadiers were posted to the front line at Ayette, near Arras. The German offensive had switched further north in April and so this was a quiet sector. Nevertheless, there was always shelling, even on the quietest sectors, and this was how Lance Corporal Victor Newman met his death. A letter from Captain O. Martin Smith was received by his family which said that he had been killed by a direct hit from a shell. He had been taken to a dressing station where he died and was then buried by the Army Chaplain in the nearby village cemetery. 'He was always so splendidly cheery and popular with everyone, and the Company can ill afford to lose such a splendid NCO.' He was 28 years of age and is buried in Ayette Cemetery (E 6) and commemorated on the Stourbridge, Oldswinford church and St. Thomas's church Memorials.