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William Newport - Royal Marine (1805-1865)

How We Found His medal!

I felt that the story of how we, my wife and I, found William′s medal was worth recounting because I wasn′t looking for it - I didn′t even know it existed and then, suddenly, I was looking at it! Well, the story goes like this...

About three years later, we, Maureen and I, decided to visit the Royal Marines Museum at Eastney (on the coast a few miles to the east of Portsmouth) for two main reasons. The first reason was that we had become mildly interested in the Royal Marines due to what was still at that time, recent knowledge of William and his enlistment in that force. The second was that it gave us somewhere different to go for a day, while still having some involvement in what was by then our main hobby and interest.

The Museum was much more interesting than we expected it would be. It was laid out in such as way as to appeal to everybody, including those casual holiday makers looking for something to do having done all the usual things that is normally done on holiday. The exhibits ranged from the creation of the Marines as a fighting force up to the present day, with a great deal of information on the Second World War. However, I think we both felt that this had nothing really to do with us. Neither of us was from families with a military background as such, and, apart from William who, at that stage was still a 'stranger' to us, we had no connection at all with the navy in any shape or form. The feeling that I think I had at the time was, though it was history, and therefore of interest anyway, what possible connection could a museum in Hampshire in 1987 have with a young agricultural labourer, born one hundred and eighty years ago in East Kent.

Well, roaming leisurely about the building we eventually came to the 'Medal Room'. This large room had glass cases mounted all around the walls except where windows wouldn't allow. Below these ran drawered units, with glass tops through which you could see the contents of the top drawer underneath, with each drawer proving when opened also to be glass covered. There were similar free-standing units taking up most of the centre of the floor area.

Inside all these cases, and drawers, neatly laid out in rank and file like marines on parade, were medals upon medals. Too many medals, in fact to do much more than glance at, read a name or two and move on. Anyway, as I said before, we had no reason to be any other than mildly interested, and with most of the medals being identical to each other except for the name of the original recipient, such interest as we had soon began to wane. The medals seemed to be laid out in order, firstly of year, and secondly of the campaign or battle for which they had been awarded. While we tried to read a few of the names engraved in very small writing around the outside edge of each medal, we realized the hopelessness of the task and really only ambled around the room, impressed by what we saw but not really expecting to find anything which would further our own researches.

Just as we were about to leave that room, however, I noticed a short lectern, not much higher than a foot stool, near the exit but quite a bit to the one side. It could have been missed so easily as we passed, but luckily, for some reason, it caught my eye. On top of this lectern was a large, thick, book open at some page, for some reason that couldn't be seen from where I stood. I was, inevitably, like all serious family historians, curious. I had to find out what this one, solitary book was doing among all this hardware.

It turned out to be a list of all those marines whose medals were held in the museum; and there was no need to look for an index, as it was clear that all names were entered in purely alphabetical order.

Naturally, I quickly turned to the N's, and was very pleasantly surprised to see what was the only 'Newport' listed in that volume. The entry read: -

W. NEWPORT Sgt.R.M.

Case 5 Drawer 21

Collection 34 A

Navarino Syria (Nov.1840)

Well, I hadn't a clue as to who he was but none the less, as I always do, I took down the information for future reference.

I showed Maureen the register entry and we both went to look in "case 5 Drawer 21", and there it was - a rather simple medal with not much to speak of in the way of design or embellishment. The ribbon was just two vertical stripes of navy blue, separated by one of white. All stripes were the same width as far as I can remember now. On the ribbon were two clasps, one above the other. The top one, furthest from the medal itself said simply 'Navarino' while the one closest said "Syria". We realised that the two word were the names of places ("Syria"was easy but we had no idea where Navarino was!)

I tried to take a photograph through the glass covering the medal but it was obvious that the light in the room was not good enough without the use of flash. It was equally obvious, however, that the glass would make flash photography very difficult, and that a good picture was really out of the question. So we left the room pleased with what we had found and I none too bothered about the failure to take that photograph. Not then, perhaps, but later was a different story!

On the way out of the museum, we passed through the inevitable souvenir shop, where we stopped to buy a few items. One was a large, reasonably comprehensive book on the Royal Marines (that Maureen bought for me) whose bibliography I thought might at least provide ideas on other directions in which to search, even if the other information inside was too general to help with our William. If I had, at that time, known the price then this too could well have been a different story!

Anyway, we were on the road, my wife driving, and, as can be expected, discussing what we had seen and found. "What I must do", I said, thinking about the medal, "is find out who this 'W. NEWPORT' is.",/p>

"You know who he is", said my wife, glancing sideways at me (and then to my relief back to the road ahead!).

I was surprised; she'd seen something I hadn't and had realized the significance. Her conviction was genuine and certain. There was no doubt. She DID know!

"Who?" I asked, surprised.

"YOUR William, the marine.", she replied.

My surprise was replaced by a feeling of disappointment. She'd obviously done what so many family historians too often do. She'd taken a few, small facts that fitted the basic story-line and from them deduced the complete plot. No argument. That was that. As far as she was concerned there was no need to look any further.

"He can't be", I said losing a little interest.

"Why not?" she inquired, "Who else could he be?"

I thought about this for a moment, and then replied, rather smugly, "Well, William was never at Navarino, wherever that is".

Even as I said it I realized that I didn't actually KNOW where William had, or in fact, hadn't been. But I had my book, and perhaps....,/p>

I opened it at the index and found 'Navarino Bay', page 40. This had to be THE Navarino.

Turning to page forty, I read that the battle took place in October 1827, and that the flagship was the H.M.S.Asia. Well, I knew that William had been a marine on the Asia from 1826-1828!

I told all this to my wife, still not believing, adding, "Well, he wasn't in Syria." Once more I scanned the index, and found 'Syria', page 45. No mention of any ship this time, but the marines were there in large numbers, and were involved in several major battles.

The light beginning to dawn, I said,"It IS William!"

"Of course it is!" my wife replied, laughing, "Who else could it be?"

I could hardly wait to get home to find more conclusive proof than I had so far, though I was convinced that Sergeant W. Newport was our William. When we arrived home I went straight to my records where I found that William had been on board the H.M.S. 'Cambridge' from July 1840 until 1843. And where had the Cambridge been during 1840? Syria!

Well, quite obviously, it would have been too great a coincidence for there to be TWO Sergeant W. Newports, who not only served on the same ships at the same time, but even had the same rank! This William was, indeed, ours!

Unfortunately, I never did get a photograph of his medal but, perhaps, one day .....

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