Landships II

James H · Legend

Newton Brothers (Derby)

Rectalgia · Legend

Ooh, there's some interesting stuff in that second site James, that of Lex Peverelli - including a heap of munitions training/technical manuals. Unfortunately it seems there is some doubt about the continued existence of the website. That is to say, look sooner rather than later.

James H · Legend

There seems to be a fly in the ointment. It's becoming increasingly clear that the Newton Pippin was nothing to do with Newton Bros. It seems to have been the work of Captain Henry Newton - he of the 6" mortar. He appears to have been director of Second Army workshops in Hazebrouck. It crossed my mind that it was a bit of a leap from electrical engineering to hand grenades, but a lot of extra-curricular inventing did go on in those days. Shall investigate further.

James H · Legend

This seems to be the background:

"The drawing above is of a standardized design produced by the Second Army Workshops at Armentieres.
It could hold from one to six rifles the elevation of which was adjustable by one hand-wheel while another wheel could traverse.
Designed by Capt. Henry Newton (far left in the photo) and produced in prototype by a blacksmith attached to Newton's home unit, the 5th Sherwood Foresters.
It so impressed Maj. General Furse, II Corps commander that he ordered Newton to set up the very workshop that produced this, as well as other items for the Second Army, with the title of Chief Engineer." That sounds like him.

It looks as if Henry and Fred were Newton Brothers Ltd. Henry took out patents during the War, for grenades and mortars. One assumes the 6-inch was amongst them. I can't discover if Fred did any military service, but maybe he was excused because of the importance of the fim's products. Or maybe he was a lot older.

Anyway, there's a mention in D. Fletcher's book that says Henry designed the Cargo Carrier and got the factory in Derby to build the prototypes.

James H · Legend

That's damned decent of you. I've tried to find a local history society or something of the sort, but no luck. One would have thought that there would be something on a company that made such a valuable contribution, particularly in WWII. It would be useful to establish if Henry and Fred were, indeed, brothers.

The factory seems to have gone, but only fairly recently. There also seems to be a connection with a family by the name of Machin. I'll try to get all the links together and have a ponder. There are a lot of Newtons in Derby, by the way. If you fancy doing a Who Do You Think You Are? that would be brilliant.

On his patents, Henry gives more than one address; somewhere in North Kensington, but also Market Place, Derby.

Your mission, should you choose to accept it . . .

�

Hang on. Blundered across this. See pages 104-6. Henry was one of five brothers, including Fred.

And this is from the Notes to the thesis:

I suppose the interesting thing about the Newton is that if production had gone ahead there would have been 20,000 - far more than all other WWI tracked vehicles put together.

-- Edited by James H on Thursday 26th of January 2012 06:09:51 PM

Rob · Legend

If any of this stuff is in any archives in Derby and I can help with research, let me know - i'm currently a resident of Derby

James H · Legend

Sorry to go on about this, but I've read through Anthony Saunders' thesis, and it is a highly impressive piece of work. He is the author of Weapons of the Trench War and, more recently, Trench Warfare 1850-1950.

There is a great deal more about the Newtons, including this startling revelation: "At the end of the war, the American government awarded Henry Newton $100,000 for (his) contribution as an inventor to the war, and put him at the top of a list of British inventors. Although this reflected which British inventors most affected America's war, rather than the war fought by the BEF, nevertheless this illustrated the importance of inventors to the prosecution of the war on the Western Front as well as the significance of the contribution made by Newton."

If there were, say, four dollars to the �, that's �25,000 - at 2012 values, about as much as Stephen Hester has just turned down. Interesting to compare the awards to Tritton, Wilson, and company.

rupertn · Private

Hello:

�

I'm one of Henry Newton's grandsons and just read these posts, I'm not entirely sure when they were made, however, if it is still an ongoing conversation I'd be very happy to assist. My Dad, and one of Henry's daughters, are both still alive and in Devon, so I can relay with them, if that would be useful.

�

A couple of things I'm fairly sure about:

Henry designed/manufactured the Pippin grenade in WW1 at the 2nd army Workshops in�Armenti�res, there is one in Imperial War Museum. At the time he was a Capt. in the Sherwood Foresters.�

Fairly sure by end of WW1 he was Vice Director of Trench Warfare, shared an office with Churchill and had been made a colonel.

During the inter-war period as I understand it the brothers built a prosperous engineering firm,�I'll have to check with my Dad on Henry's WW2 activities and which brothers were working together.

One of his daughters Patricia married Arnold Machin RA, who went on to become the respected sculptor and designer of the Machin stamp for the Post Office, hence the Machin connection, they had a son, Francis, �who was a well know architect.

Best

�

Rupert Newton�

James H · Legend

Hi, Rupert. Many thanks for getting in touch. All info is welcome here. Glad we're more or less on the right track.

If Henry shared an office or had close contact with Churchill, it's very likely they would have discussed tracked supply vehicles. Supply tanks were high in Churchill's priorities. Any details on that would be brilliant.

Is it true about the �million?

Very kind of you to offer help.

Regards,

JH

Date: Jul 20, 2015

I realise I am way late for joining in the conversation below but my husband Tom Newton is a grandson of Fred Newton and very interested in finding out more about the firm. There's lots of confusion about the various brothers and the inventions of Fred and Henry in particular. Does anybody know where the surviving archive material ended up?

James H · Legend

Hi. Thanks for getting in touch. We were rather hoping that info would come to us. Everything I managed to find out is posted here. As you can see, Rupert said he might contribute, but he hasn't been in touch since. Are you in contact with him?