Friends of the Somme - Mid Ulster Branch  
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Date Information
28/10/2021 Captain Charles Newell is commemorated locally on Dungannon War Memorial and on the WWI Roll of Honour in St Anne's Church Of Ireland in Dungannon.
28/10/2021 The 1901 census records that Charles was not living with the family. His father Joseph was a victualler (butcher) on Perry Street. The family lived there.
28/10/2021 Family: Joseph Newell, Mary Newell, Charles Newell (born 26th May 1880, Stewartstown), Ida Newell (born 21st October 1881, Dungannon; died 5th February 1882), Henry Newell (born 17th July 1883, Dungannon), Ida Mabel Newell (born 9th June 1885, Dungannon), William Newell (born 28th November 1887, Dungannon; died 10th January 1888), John Newell (born 16th January 1890, Dungannon), Robert Lott Newell (born 4th August 1892, Dungannon).
28/10/2021 Charles Newell was born on 26th May 1880 in Stewartstown. He was the oldest of seven children, five surviving. All the other children were m born in Dungannon.
28/10/2021 Charles Newell was the eldest son of Joseph and Mary Newell of Dungannon. Joseph Newell and Mary Harding were married on 5th March 1879 in the district of Cookstown.
28/10/2021 Captain Charles Newell is also commemorated on the Holdfast L.O.L. 1620 Dungannon Roll of Honour.
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20/01/2019 From the Mid Ulster Mail dated 4th May 1918:
20/01/2019 At the meeting of Tyrone County Council on Wednesday 24th April, the chairman (Mr J B Gunning-Moore, D.L.) referred in feeling terms to the death of Captain Newell, who had been one of the county surveyor’s staff, and had been killed recently in France, and moved that a resolution of condolence be sent to his father. The motion was seconded by Mr John Doris, J.P., and passed in silence.
20/01/2019
08/08/2018 From the Mid Ulster Mail dated 17th April 1915: Clerical Cigarettes (Harry Newell - brother of Captain Charles Newell)
08/08/2018 Trooper Harry Newell, writing to his father, Mr Joseph Newell, Dungannon, states that he has received a parcel of comforts, including a box of cigarettes, from Rev John Watson, Carlingford, and who is now minister of Second Dungannon Presbyterian Church.
08/08/2018
21/05/2018 I would like to give you a sketch of the country and my journeys, but I will wait until we are having our tea together. I will have a good reminder, in the form of a diary, in which I am making rough sketches daily. On arriving in France on the night of Saturday 22nd August, we camped out until Monday afternoon, a few miles outside the sea port, Le Havre. After entraining until Tuesday we passed through Rouen and arrived at St Quentin, remaining there until the following night, when we left for La Fere, just in time to escape the Germans, who, according to rumour, arrived in St Quentin but a few hours after we had left. We rode right down to the south east of Paris and within fifteen of it a town called Tournai, where we joined the Fifth Division. All the luxuries the people possessed were shared upon us, but things changed when we turned up north again to follow the retreating Germans, for he had rid the country very well on his way. We received regular and substantial fare, but when we cannot eat it or change its form, we have to go hungry. A spoilt medico and I hold daily consultations as to how we are to manoeuvre the bill of fare, for as we follow up the Germans, and sometimes thousands of our own troops, you can guess how impossible it is to get anything to buy. Our fellows all have plenty of money, yet cannot buy matches. The French farmers do not live scattered over the country as in Ireland, but dwell in innumerable villages, where they live on potatoes, apples, nuts and French rolls. They drink no tea, but go in for cider cups and brews which they make themselves. I will send you a recipe for one of them. If you could send me a pocket electric lamp it might come in useful when I receive a midnight call to saddle up. I though Rouen was going to be our base and not Le Havre and, I had no idea where we were going when I started the train journey. Nor did I know until I had arrived, when I had to ask some of the natives. I believe we are going to get fresh kit supplied some of these days. I may be going to the Engineers today. If so, I shall let you know immediately.'
21/05/2018 ‘I met Mr Hall, dentist (Irish Street, Dungannon), this morning. He is with the 18th Field Ambulance Corps. He gave me this sheet of notepaper and an envelope, as I had neither. I was very glad to meet one whom I had known in Dungannon. I had not seen any of the Dungannon chaps for some time. I believe Davis (Corporal James Davis, Barrack Street, Dungannon, North Irish Horse), is with another Division, which was not many miles away a short time ago. I sent a message to him with a fellow who had lost the Division, but was returning to it. I have got no answer to it yet. Wingfield Espey (lower town, Dungannon, North Irish Horse) is with the Division guarding the general. Lieutenant D Williamson (Fort Hill, Castlecaulfield) is somewhere about this village. In fact I met Mr Hall when looking for him. If you get any information about the Dungannon chaps please let me have it, as we are quite apart. I will details some of my wants now lest I cannot get time again and will try to have this letter franked to speed its passage home. I want another packet of post cards, a few sheets of notepaper and envelopes, a copying ink pencil, trouser buttons, handkerchiefs, leather boot laces, a box of good matches, a cord for Boy Scout tea holder, and some gelatine sweets to put in tea (as milk cannot always be got, and when one gets it all the rest must share). I would like a corned tongue cooked and a black pudding cut in slices and fried, which should make it hardy enough for travelling. Some lads here got eggs from home, but they were all smashed, although boiled. Almost every third soldier has lost his regimental cap and wears a khaki knitted pirate’s cap, which was served out. We got ours on the boat, along with an iron-bladed knife and a Cardigan woollen jacket. We left our kit bags at Havre, and I could only take with me what I stood up in and what I managed to roll up in my top coat. I had to leave my mirror behind, but I brought my washing and shaving outfit, some extra socks, a night cap, knife, fork, spoon, et cetera. I can carry more stuff now owing to being in charge of a German saddle belonging to Mr Combe (Lieutenant S B Combe, North Irish Horse, recently reported missing), which has two wallets in it. Some I bought a shirt and some socks off other chaps for a few francs, as they have no money except 20 franc notes, which they cannot get changed and are white elephants to them.
21/05/2018 Mr Joseph Newell, Perry Street, Dungannon, has received a letter from his son, Trooper Harry Newell, of the North Irish Horse, under date of Tuesday 2nd October, of which he says:-
21/05/2018
21/05/2018 From the Mid Ulster Mail dated 17th October 1914: Letters from the Front - Harry Newell (brother of Charles Newell)
22/10/2017
22/10/2017 On Friday evening the Dungannon Urban Council passed a vote of sympathy with Mr Newell, Church Street, on the death of his son in action.
22/10/2017 From the Tyrone Courier and Dungannon News dated 11th April 1918: Sympathy
10/09/2017 Trooper Harry Newell, C Squadron, North Irish Horse, second son of Mr J Newell, Dungannon, returned home on Thursday from Belgium on a short leave. He had gone out with the first Expeditionary Force, and had taken part in all principal engagements since the beginning of the war.
10/09/2017
10/09/2017 From the Tyrone Courier dated 26th August1915: Harry Newell (brother of Captain Charles Newell)
07/09/2017 The Tyrone Courier is very illuminating in the Petty Sessions and other corners as to men eligible for active service but who have quite made up their minds to live for their country and who doubtless feel to snug in their ‘fat job’ or ‘safe beat’ to venture into the Flanders to bear a hand in breaking up and destroying the great packs of ravenous German wolves which roam over France and Flanders and would raid also our Irish villages and make the days and nights hideous. There would be nothing fat left in Ireland, as now in Belgium, not even a fat national policeman. There would be Germans on that job! I wonder that eligible men are not ashamed to parade themselves in the limelight of the public press. About Dungannon, I am lead to believe that the eligible receive scant respect, and I can assure you that men who have only been here since Easter have no respect for such shirkers. And men who have endured the campaign since last August have quite made up their minds that they, or rather, what is left of them, have done their own bit, and are now doing the shirker’s bit into the bargain. The South African campaign has been called a picnic when compared with last winter’s campaign, but that winter’s contests are as nothing to this season’s struggles and Waterloos. The pace of the war has been greatly quickened these last few weeks and the pace is likely to further increase. The present ‘greater Waterloos’ are going to be succeeded by mightier and more numerous, and more frequent Waterloos. Those who are enlisting just now don’t deserve much credit for while they are being trained, war’s mightiest deed will have been wrought.
07/09/2017 Mr Joseph Newell, Perry Street, Dungannon, has received the following letter from his son, Trooper Henry Newell, of the North Irish Horse, who is at present at the front with the Head Army staff, 1st Army Corps:-
07/09/2017
07/09/2017 From the Tyrone Courier dated 3rd June 1915: An Appeal to Shirkers – North Irishman’s Letter – Henry ‘Harry’ Newell (brother of Captain Charles Newell)
28/03/2017 Charles Newell was a member of St John’s Masonic Lodge 185, Dungannon.
28/03/2017 From the Belfast Newsletter dated 29th March 1918:
28/03/2017
28/03/2017 Captain Charles Newell, Royal Engineers, killed in action on 24th March, was the eldest son of Mr Joseph Newell, Dungannon. In civil life he was an assistant surveyor in the service of Tyrone County Council.
28/03/2017 Charles Newell was promoted to captain on 31st January 1916.
28/03/2017 Captain Charles Newell is buried in St. Hillarie Cemetery, Fervent, France. His inscription reads: OF SUCH IS THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN
13/11/2016 Mr Joseph Newell, Dungannon, has received intimation that his second son, Trooper Harry Newell, North Irish Horse, who has been in France since the outbreak of war, is on hospital at Cassel, France, suffering from the effects of recent trying experiences. By coincidence he is being medically attended by another Dungannon man, Lieutenant Harold Sugars, R.A.M.C. Trooper Newell has two brothers, Lieutenant Charles Newell, Royal Engineers, and Sergeant John Newell, 6th Inniskilling Dragoons, also at the front.
13/11/2016
13/11/2016 From the Belfast Newsletter dated 24th November 1915: Trooper Harry Newell (brother of Charles Newell)
30/12/2015 Mr Charles Newell, C.E., Dungannon, assistant county surveyor, has received an appointment as first lieutenant in the Royal Engineers, and will leave for overseas service immediately. Lieutenant Newell, who has been acting as assistant county surveyor in Tyrone during the past six years, volunteered during the south African war, and was with the colours until it's conclusion, and possesses the King and Queen's medals with five clasps for that campaign. Mr Newell is scoutmaster of one of the Dungannon troops of Boy Scouts and was a section leader in the Dungannon Batt. U.V.F. He is the eldest son of Mr Joseph Newell, and all his brothers are now serving their King and country, Trooper Harry Newell being in France with the North Irish Horse; Sergeant John Newell in England with the Inniskilling Dragoons and Mr L R H Newell, Inland Revenue officer in Dundalk. The latter had also volunteered for active service, but his department could not spare him.
30/12/2015
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30/12/2015 Captain Charles Newell, Royal Engineers, who has done some useful work, is at home at present on short leave.
30/12/2015
30/12/2015 From the Tyrone Courier dated 1st February 1917
30/12/2015 Lieutenant Charles Newell, Royal Engineers, serving with the forces in France, has been promoted Captain dating from 7th March 1916. He is the eldest son of Mr Joseph Newell, Dungannon and is one of three brothers serving
30/12/2015 From the Tyrone Courier dated 23rd March 1916:
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30/12/2015
30/12/2015 From the Tyrone Courier dated 9th September 1915
30/12/2015 All his brothers were serving their King and country, Trooper Harry Newell being in France with the North Irish Horse; Sergeant John Newell in England with the Inniskilling Dragoons and Mr L R H Newell, Inland Revenue officer in Dundalk. The latter had also volunteered for active service, but his department could not spare him.
30/12/2015 Mr Newell was scoutmaster of one of the Dungannon troops of Boy Scouts and was a section leader in the Dungannon Battalion of the U.V.F.
30/12/2015 Charles Newell C.E. had been acting as assistant county surveyor in Tyrone from 1909 up until enlistment.
30/12/2015 Charles had volunteered during the South African war, and was with the colours until its conclusion, and possesses the King and Queen's medals with five clasps for that campaign.
30/12/2015 The CGWC record Captain Charles Newell as the son of Joseph and Mary Newell of Perry Street, Dungannon, County Tyrone.
30/12/2015 Captain Charles Newell was serving with the Royal Engineers when he was killed in action in France on 24th March 1918, aged 37.
30/12/2015
30/12/2015
30/12/2015 The 1911 census records Charles as now back living with the family. He was 30 years old and single. He was an architect and surveyor. The family still lived at Perry Street, Dungannon.
30/12/2015 Trooper Harry Newell, North Irish Horse, second son of Mr Joseph Newell, Dungannon, is in base hospital in France suffering from injuries to his leg, received while on active service at the front.
30/12/2015
30/12/2015 From the Belfast Newsletter dated 24th March 1915: Harry Newell (brother of Captain Charles Newell)
30/12/2015
30/12/2015 Amongst the .local men home on leave from France at present are Captain Charles Newell, Royal Engineers, Corporal R A Williamson, Inniskilling Dragoons and Corporal Fred Patterson of the 9th Inniskillings.
30/12/2015
30/12/2015 The grave photo included, kindly donated by Wayne Starr, depicts a rare image of the original wooden grave markers, before they were replaced by the CWGC gravestones.
30/12/2015 Lieutenant Charles Newell, Royal Engineers, serving with the forces in France has been promoted Captain. He volunteered at the end of last summer and received his lieutenancy in September, and at once went overseas, arriving at the front during the sanguinary struggle in Loos. Captain Newell, who had been acting as assistant county surveyor in Tyrone during the past six years, volunteered during the South African War and was with the colours till it's conclusion and possesses the King's and Queen's Medals with five clasps for the campaign. He was scoutmaster of one of the Dungannon Troops of Boy Scouts, and was a section leader in the Dungannon Battalion U.V.F. He is the eldest son of Mr Joseph Newell, merchant, Dungannon, and all his brothers are now serving their King and country – Trooper Harry Newell being in France with the North Irish Horse; Sergeant John Newell in France with the Ulster Division Squadron of the Inniskilling Dragoons; and Mr L R H Newell, Inland Revenue Officer, Warrenpoint. The latter also volunteered for active service, but his department could not spare him.
30/12/2015 From the Tyrone Courier and Dungannon News dated Thursday 4 April 1918:
30/12/2015 From the Mid Ulster Mail dated Saturday 25th March 1916:
30/12/2015 Lieutenant Charles Newell, Royal Engineers, returned home to Perry Street, Dungannon, on Thursday, for a short leave of absence. He had proceeded to France on receiving his appointment in September last and had arrived in time to witness the big battle at Loos.
30/12/2015
30/12/2015 From the Mid Ulster Mail dated Saturday 1st January 1916:
30/12/2015 Trooper Harry Newell, North Irish Horse, son of Mr Joseph Newell, merchant, Dungannon, has returned home on leave owing to illness contracted in Europe. He went out with the First Expeditionary Force at the beginning of the war.
30/12/2015
30/12/2015 From the Mid Ulster Mail dated Saturday 1st January 1916: Trooper Harry Newell (brother of Charles Newell)
30/12/2015 Captain Charles Newell, Royal Engineers, killed in action was the eldest son of Mr Joseph Newell , Dungannon, The deceased was an assistant surveyor under the Tyrone County Council, stationed in Dungannon where he was a general favourite . He joined the Engineers after the outbreak of war, and was promoted captain on 31st January 1916. He had previously served as a trooper in the Yeomanry in the South African War. The deceased was a member of St John's Masonic Lodge 185, Dungannon. His three brothers all volunteered for service in the European conflict.
30/12/2015 From the Mid Ulster Mail dated Saturday 13th May 1916:
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