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General => Armed Forces => Topic started by: Bitzer1 on Sunday 06 September 20 18:49 BST (UK)
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I have found two privates (service nos 2217 and 4428) named John Newman, who received medals serving in the 28th Regiment of Foot in the Crimean War, and would appreciate any help in identifying which of them was John William Newman.
John William Newman was a private in the regiment when he became father to Elizabeth Mary Newman, born in Salford on 8 March 1851 and baptised on 11 May 1851 in Manchester Cathedral, and William Joseph Edgar Newman, born in Sculcoates, in 1853. Newman's widowed wife Mary remarried on 19 November 1856. My assumption is that Newman died during, or as a consequence of, the Crimean War, but I have not found a record of his death.
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Possible clue - 2217 John Newman was stationed in Manchester for the 1851 census with 28th Foot aged 25 married born Barking Essex. Elizabeth Mary's birth is listed in the army births - 28th Regiment.
MaxD
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Many thanks MaxD.
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I have found two privates (service nos 2217 and 4428) named John Newman
It's not 4428 - it's 4028. He was discharged to pension in 1860: https://search.findmypast.co.uk/record?id=GBM%2FWO97%2F1487%2F121%2F001&parentid=GBM%2FWO97%2F1487%2F766737
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Many thanks Shaun J, that clears it up. Someone put a very useful 1857 map of Manchester/Salford on Rootschat, which meant I could see that John Newman's wife and child were living a few streets from the barracks in 1851. His medal citation has WO as remarks. I don't know what that means. Wounded perhaps?
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John William Newman private 2217 seems to be right one. What has now confused me is that when his daughter Elizabeth Mary Newman married in 1875, she listed her father as "John William Newman (deceased) Pensioner 28th Regiment," which, by mentioning pensioner, suggests to me that he might have survived the war, or am I misreading this? If he did survive, then his wife Mary Richardson would have bigamously married William Simpson on 19 Nov 1856, which is possible. When his son William Joseph Edgar Newman married in 1884 and again in 1900, he listed his father as "William John Newman (deceased) Sail Maker", which is quite odd as his mother Mary Simpson did not die until 1910 and could have given him the correct information if they were still in touch.
I would welcome any advice or suggestions.
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It certainly wasn't 4028. He didn't join the army until 1854 (aged 17)
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Many thanks Shaun J. Eliminating 4028 definitely helps.
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2217 didn't die in the Crimea - that would have been noted on the medal roll. "WO" could suggest that his medal would be sent to/retained by the War Office.
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Thanks ShaunJ, that had not occurred to me. Under what kinds of circumstances do you think the War Office might have retained a medal? Perhaps if a soldier had gone missing or deserted? 2217 was probably born in 1822. If he did not draw a pension, could that perhaps mean that he died, went missing, stayed enlisted or did not live to whatever age was required before he could draw it? I am stumped about where to go next.
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Well I stand corrected - here he is in a list of deaths at Scutari in March 1855:
(Scottish Guardian, 3 April 1855)
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Very many thanks ShaunJ for solving the mystery. According to one source: "With overcrowding, defective sewers and lack of ventilation, the Sanitary Commission had to be sent out by the British government to Scutari in March 1855, almost six months after Nightingale had arrived. The commission flushed out the sewers and improved ventilation." It looks like John Newman died just before the improvements were made.
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"Remarkably, even those patients admitted with conditions described as rheumatic had mortality rates as high as 10%"
https://academic.oup.com/cid/article/40/12/1799/314039