Name
Leslie Newall
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
02/09/1915
23
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Second Lieutenant
London Regiment (Royal Fusiliers)
1st (City of London) Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 /15 Star, British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
RUE-DAVID MILITARY CEMETERY, FLEURBAIX
I. C. 15.
France
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
Croxley Green Village Memorial, Croxley Green
All Saints' Church Shrine, Croxley Green
All Saints’ Church Internal Plaque, Croxley Green
Rickmansworth Urban District Memorial
Soberton Town Memorial, Hampshire
Pre War
The Newalls were an important family in Croxley Green and the surrounding area. They had come to live at Redheath in 1899.
Leslie's parents were William and Lilian Lucy (Holloway) Newall. William was a member of the stock exchange and kept a substantial establishment (a governess and nine household servants in 1911). They had two other sons, Keith in the navy and Nigel in the army, and two daughters, Doreen and Gwynneth. Nigel was also killed in 1917. William was born in Gateshead, County Durham, the son of a famous Scottish engineer, industrialist and amateur astronomer, Robert Newall.
Leslie Newall’s birth on 2 Oct 1892 in Chelsea. He was educated at Eton and Merton College, Oxford, where he had just taken his degree in the summer of 1914 before joining the army.
Wartime Service
Second Lieutenant Leslie Newall, 1st Battalion, the London Regiment (Royal Fusiliers) was killed in Flanders on the night of 2 September. He was 23 and the eldest son of William and Lilian Newall of Redheath. His body is buried at Rue-David Military Cemetery, Fleurbaix, which is south of Armentieres, Pas-de-Calais, France. (According to the memorial in All Saints’ church he was originally buried at Croix Marechal military cemetery, Fleurbaix. The grave was transferred after the war.)
According to the Watford Observer, he had applied for a commission as soon as war was declared and received it in August. In September he left for Malta with his regiment, which returned to England in February and left for Flanders on 10 March. On 2 September, he was out on patrol duty between the trenches when he was hit, became unconscious and died before he could be brought back.
In October 1915 All Saints’ Parish Magazine recorded that he had taken part in many severe engagements, in one of which a shell burst five yards away and buried him. He was dug out uninjured; a marvellous escape. The magazine’s editor wrote that Leslie Newall was not only a brave officer but a man of splendid character and lofty ideals. He died as he had lived, nobly and honourably. He was loved and respected by all who knew him, whether it was at home, or at school, or at college, or within his regiment. The editor offered sympathy to the Newall family and commented that the only consolation for the cutting short of a life so full of promise was the thought that however long he had lived he could do no greater thing than lay down his life for his friends. It was the ideal of all Christians.
An impressive memorial service was conducted by the vicar, Rev Edward Wells, assisted by the Rural Dean, Canon Parkinson, on 25 September. It attracted a large congregation, including some notable people: - Mr Frank Newall FRS (Professor of Astrophysics at Cambridge University) and his wife Margaret (a distinguished pianist), Sir James K Fowler KCVO (physician and academic) and Sir George Frampton RA (sculptor and craftsman). At the conclusion of the service the bugle band of the 1st/8th Sherwood Foresters sounded the ‘Last Post’.
Additional Information
Brother of 2nd Lieutenant Nigel Newall who was killed in action on 12 Oct 1917 and is also commemorated on this memorial.
Acknowledgments
Malcolm Lennox, Brian Thomson, Croxley Green in the First World War, Rickmansworth Historical Society 2014
