William J. Newman 93rd Battalion

William John Newman [Newnham] 195694

* It is my belief that the inscription on the Warsaw cenotaph for William Newman is incorrect and should read William Newnham.  The former name appears using this spelling in all military records, his Birth registry and the 1911 census.

W. John Newnham was born in Dummer Township, Ontario, on May 14, 1887 to parents John Henry Newnham & Margaret-Jane Dodds.  The family farmed in the township until at least 1901, when they relocated to Selwyn in the nearby township of Smith.

William enlisted in 93^rd “Peterboro” Battalion in Peterborough, Ontario on January 28^th, 1916.  He indicated his occupation as a farm labourer, that he was unmarried and had no previous service in the military. He was 28 years, 8 months old, 5 foot 5” tall, had a dark complexion, brown eyes and dark brown hair.  His religion was Wesleyan.

Pte. Newnham sailed to England with the 93^rd where shortly after it was broken up and its members reassigned to  the  6^th Canadian Reinforcement Reserve Battalion.  He was later assigned to the 21^st Eastern Ontario Battalion on April 22 1917, which was in desperate need to fill the gaps in the ranks after the recent attack on Vimy Ridge. 

Pte. Newnham was eventually wounded and invalided to Seaford, England on August 12, 1917. Having sufficiently recovered from his wounds, William returned to the trenches with the 21^st Battalion on March 29, 1918. 

In the Spring of 1918, Pte. Newnham would have held the trenches around Vimy Ridge, and avoided the brutal fighting that was playing out in other parts of the British lines.  The fortified positions held by the 21^st were not completely safe from strife though, as the battalion received a constant number of casualties from enemy artillery bombardments and raids into No Man’s Land

If the Spring was characterized as relatively quiet for the 21^st Battalion, the Summer was not.  Pte. Newnham would have been seen hard fighting in August at the Battle of Amiens, and into September in the Battle of Arras where his battalion suffered 55% casualties.  His last engagement came near the end of the two-week battle known as the Battle of Canal Du Nord.

The 21^st had been assigned the job of attacking the town of Avensnes-leSec, on the morning of October 11^th 1918.  This attack is of historical significance in that it would become the only instance in which Canadian troops would be on the receiving end of a German tank attack.  Pte. Newnham was killed during the attack, whether from gas, tanks, enemy artillery, machine gun or rifle fire, it is unknown, as they were all  used against the advancing Canadians.  He currently lies in Grave 5, Plot 1, Row A in Niagara British Cemetery, in Iwuy France.  He is also commemorated on the Cenotaph in Warsaw, Ontario.

 

Sources:

21^st Battalion C.E.F. Daily Orders Part II.

Nichol, Stephen J.  Ordinary Heroes: Eastern Ontario’s 21^st Battalion C.E.F. in the Great War. 

Canada:2008  
Library and Archives Canada (LAC). Census of Canada, 1911. Ottawa, Ontario, Canada: Library and

Archives Canada, 2007. Series RG31-C-1. Statistics Canada Fonds. Microfilm reels T-20326 to T-20460.

LAC; Ottawa, Ontario, Canada; War Graves Registers: Circumstances of Death; Record Group

Number: RG 150, 1992-93/314; Volume Number: 224.

LAC; War Graves Registry: Commonwealth War Graves. RG150, 1992-1993/314, Box 39-244; Box: 106.