Sidney James Newman

Census Address: 38 North Street
Place of Birth: Stamford
Date of Birth: 1898
Enlistment Address: --
Regiment: --
Service Numbers: --
Place of Death: --
Date Died: --
38 and 39 North Street, Stamford

The Newman Family – 38 North Street

William Arthur Newman and Annie Clarke married at Peterborough in July 1886. They had 4 sons and 2 daughters. Neither of them was born in the Stamford area and the elder children were all born in Peterborough but the family had moved to Stamford by the time the eldest was 7yrs old. The younger 2 boys were born in Stamford. They had lived at 38 North St, a 5 room house, since at least 1901 while William Arthur worked as a woodworking machinist and woodturner.

In 1911 all 6 children were living at home. William Joseph the eldest aged 23 was employed as a joiner and carpenter for a builder; 22yr old Edward Arthur worked as an iron moulder for an agricultural implement maker; John aged 15 years was a draper’s assistant and the two girls, Rosa Ann aged 20 years and Nellie aged 18 years, were dressmakers. Sidney James, the youngest at 13 years, was still at school.

John

He was born in January 1896 and grew up in Stamford. In “Stamford in the Great War” he is listed as serving as a Private in the Lincs Regiment but nothing more is known about his service record.

According to his Ancestry Family Tree he moved to Grimsby after the War and married Violet Saunders in 1920. She died in 1955 and a year later he married Dorothy Joy in Ealing. He died in 1963.

Sidney James

He was born in September 1898 and grew up in Stamford. He enlisted in August 1916 just before his 18th birthday and was called up in February 1917 for training with the Northants Fusiliers. He served overseas earning the British and Victory medals. He was demobilised and transferred to the Army Reserve on 26th November 1919.

After the War he became a hairdresser. He married Lucy Curtis in St Michael’s Church, Stamford in 1923 and their first son was registered in Stamford. By 1926 they had moved to Grantham where their next 2 children were born. Sometime in the 1930s they moved to Sheerness. Altogether they had 3 sons – Geoffrey, Sidney and Paul and 3 daughters – Mary, Anne and Jill. Three of his children – Mary, Geoffrey and Sid are now deceased.

Sidney James Newman died in 1992 in Sittingbourne, Kent, his wife Lucy lived to the age of 103.

The Rest of the Family

Both of John and Sidney’s elder brothers served in the war. Joseph William was a Sapper in the Royal Engineers and Edward Arthur as a Private in the 6th Lincs. Joseph returned to marry in Stamford but Edward died in France in July 1918 having been awarded the Military Medal – his name is on the Stamford War Memorial.

The girls both married in Stamford: Rosa to Norman Brown and Nellie to Ernest Pullen.

(No 38 North Street is clearly numbered on gateposts but leads into a car park for Stamford Area Office of Adult Care & Children’s Services – presumably the 1911 house has been demolished)