Name
John Henry Newberry
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
25/08/1918
21
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Driver
890821
Royal Field Artillery
386th Battery
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
TEHRAN MEMORIAL
Panel 1, Column 2.
Iran
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
Watford Printers Memorial, Watford, Sun Engraving Company Memorial, Watford, Croxley Green Village Memorial, All Saints' Church Shrine, Croxley Green, Rickmansworth Urban District Memorial, St Mary's Church Memorial, Rickmansworth
Pre War
John was the son of Matthew and Jane Newberry of the Duke of York public house on Watford Road. He was born on 4 October 1897 in Manchester and baptised at St Mary’s Hulme on 25 June 1899.
His parents married 29 March 1891 at St Bartholomew’s, Whittington, Derbys. Jane died 1927 in the Watford district aged 60; Matthew died 1 February 1937 in Croxley Green aged 65.
John was born 4 October 1897 in Manchester, and baptised 25 June 1899 at St Mary’s, Hulme, Lancs. He was a choirboy at St Mary’s, Rickmansworth, Herts.
In 1901 his parents kept a tavern at 46 and 48 Preston Street in south Manchester. But by 1911 the Newberry family had moved to 66 Church Street, Rickmansworth. Matthew was a steam crane driver for a gravel company and John, aged 13, was a newsboy at the railway bookstall. Matthew and Jane Newberry had 13 children of whom 9 survived (in 1911). John was a choirboy at St. Mary’s Rickmansworth and, before joining the army, worked for Sun Printers in Watford.
Wartime Service
He enlisted in Hereford [Hertford?]; was entitled to the Victory and British War medals, and died in Mesopotamia.
Driver John Newberry Royal Horse Artillery and Royal Field Artillery, 386th Battery died, probably from disease, in Mesopotamia on 26th August 1918, aged 21.
According to the Watford Observer of 14 September, he died of colitis.
After the capture of Baghdad by General Maude’s army in March 1917, one of Britain’s concerns was to protect the oilfields in northern Persia from Turkish attack. A contingent, led by General Dunsterville, moved north from Baghdad into Persia in January 1918. John Newberry may have served in this force since he is commemorated on the Tehran Memorial in Iran.
Additional Information
The Army paid his mother Jane a gratuity of £34 14s 11d There is an article about and a Death announcement for John in the West Herts and Watford Observer dated 14 September 1918; plus an In Memoriam in the issue dated 30 August 1919. Unfortunately, John’s Service Record appears to be one that did not survive the World War Two bombing. Brother of Gunner Samuel William Newberry who was killed in action on 3 Nov 1917 and who is also commemorated on these memorials.
John and his brother Sameel are also commemorated on the family headstone in Rickmansworth (Chorley Road) Cemetery. Their inscription reads:
OUR DEAR SON (Matthew & Jane Newberry) GUNNER S. W. NEWBERRY, WHO FELL IN ACTION NOV. 3RD 1917. AGED 25 YEARS.
ALSO OF JOHN HENRY NEWBERRY, BROTHER OF THE ABOVE WHO DIED IN MESOPOTAMIA AUG. 26TH 1918, AGED 21 YEARS.
Acknowledgments
Malcolm Lennox, Tanya Britton, Brian Thomson, Croxley Green in the First World War, Rickmansworth Historical Society 2014, Sue Carter (Research) and Watford Museum (ROH on line via www.ourwatfordhistory.org.uk)
