Private William George Langton Newell

William George Langton Newell was born in Kensington 1883 and baptised at St. Paul’s, Onslow Square. He lived with his parents, Albert George and Elizabeth Adelphine, at 26 Queens Terrace Mews. His father was a coachman. He and his siblings grew up in the parish of St. Paul’s and by 1901 he was working as a solicitor’s clerk. He married Rose Elizabeth Langdon in Chelsea in 1905 and their son Reginald was born in 1911. They were now living at 122 Ebury Buildings in Pimlico.

William enlisted at Woolwich on 31 October 1916 at the age of 32. He was initially a private in the Royal Garrison Artillery, service number 128753. He was later transferred to the 2nd Battalion of the Border Regiment and was posted to France on 5 January 1917. He spent the next nine months fighting on the Western Front until he was reported missing presumed dead on 7 October. He died during the Third Battle of Ypres, an offensive mounted by Commonwealth forces to divert the Germans from a weakened French front in the south. Fought between July and November 1917, both sides suffered heavy losses and endured appalling conditions.

Private Newell is commemorated on the Tyne Cot Memorial Panel 85-86 in Belgium. The Tyne Cot is one of four memorials to the missing in Belgian Flanders which cover the area known as the Ypres Salient. He is remembered by his parents, who were living at “Tors”, Beverley Road, New Malden at the time of his death, and by his wife at 53 Broxash Road, Clapham Common, London. His name also appears on one of the panels in the Lychgate at St. Lawrence Church, Morden, which serves as the parish war memorial.

His younger brother, James Henry Newell, a driver with the Royal Engineers, was killed in action on the Western Front in July 1917. His name also appears on one of the panels in the Lychgate at St. Lawrence Church, Morden.