Edwin Montague Browne Newman
1861 - 1885

 Relationship to me: Great Uncle Gen -2 


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 Born: 1861  
 Died: 22 Mar 1885 - killed in the Battle of Tofrik, Sudan.  
 Age 24  
 Father:      Walter Newman 1836 - 1894 
 Mother: Emma Montague Browne   1844 -1930
 Brothers: (younger) Walter Ernest Newman 1864 -1947
 Sisters:   (younger) Evelyn Newman 1870 - 1950 
 Married Never married  


Edwin at Wellington - left: from 1878 Anglesey Dormitory photo; right: honour board listing winners of the Modern Exhibition on which Edwin's name appears for 1879.

Outline his Life:

Eldest son of Walter Newman of the Royal Artillery, Edwin was named after his grandfather (Edwin the lawyer) and his mother Emma Montague Browne (names that continued in the family for one or more generations). He was the first of the Newman's to be educated at Wellington College where he was enrolled in the Anglesey dormitory. He was a bright student, winning the Modern Exhibition prize in 1879 - see half way down left side, photo left.

In the summer term of 1879, Edwin passed the entrance exam into the Royal Military Acadamy, Woolwich, gaining 4th place in the exams - the highest amongst Wellington's applicants.

After Woolwich and Chatham, Edwin joined the Royal Engineers on 26th July 1881. His career and his life were tragically cut short less than four years later, when on 22nd March 1885 at the age of 24, he was killed at the battle of McNeill's Zeriba at Tofrek in the Sudan, serving as a sapper subaltern with the Field Company Queen's Own Sappers and Miners (later became the 14th Fld Coy QVO Madras Sappers and Miners).

In 2015 I created a Wikipedea page describing the battle (together with a separate page on the Suakin-Berber Railway which formed the underlying reason why British troops were called to the area). The main sources of information on which I drew were:

An excellent book describing the political circumstances that led to the rise of the Mahdi and the Mahdi Wars that followed (or which the Battle of Tofrek formed part), is: "Armies of God: Islam and Empire on the Nile, 1869-1899" by Dominic Green, pub. Century, 2007.

It should be possible to find more information about Edwin through school records from Wellington, and (perhaps) army records or museums.

Edwin was buried, together with the other 33+ members of the British contingent who died at the Battle of Tofrek, in one of the communal graves that were dug at the northern and western sides of the zeriba where they died.


Last Updated: 22 Aug 2015