Noel was born on 18th December 1900 in Wotton, Dorking to parents Elizabeth and Jesse, and aged just 3 months old on the 1901 census. The family lived at Shortland Broadmoor in Wotton and Noel was the youngest of 4 sons.
By 1911 the Newnham family had grown to eight children, Noel was aged 10 and at school, and they lived in a house on Compton Road, Lindfield, Sussex.
He enlisted with the Royal Marines as a Bugler on 29th April 1916 aged 15 years old recorded as 5' tall, with light brown hair and blue eyes. He remained at Headquarters until 14th February 1917 when he was posted to HMS VANGUARD and was just 16 when he died.
(#100 - 577/843)
Sources:
1901 & 1911 England Census
Royal Marines Registers of Service Index, 1842-1925
CWGC Register
Royal Marines Registers of Service Index, 1842-1925
Royal Navy and Royal Marine War Graves Roll, 1914-1919 ADM 242/9; Scan Number: 0679
National Archives of the UK; Kew, Surrey, England; Admiralty and predecessors: Office of the Director General of the Medical Department of the Navy and predecessors: Service Registers and Registers of Deaths and Injuries. Registers of Reports of Deaths
WWI Pension Ledgers and Index Cards, 1914-1923 Western Front Association; London, England; Naval Pensions Ledger; Reference: 542931
Noel Herbert Newnham was my late mothers Uncle. Two of his brothers had already been killed at the time of his death. Alfred Edward Victor Newnham (2nd Btn Royal Sussex Regiment) died of wounds in 1914 and John Francis Newnham (HMS Tiger) killed at Jutland. Their father Jesse Newnham Snr and brothers Jesse Newnham Jnr and Harold Percy Newnham also served during WW1. These survived the War but Harold Percy Newnham was killed in WW2 whilst serving in the Merchant Navy on the SS Ceramic.(Sunk by U Boat December 1942).