Branch of Service

Army

Conflict

World War I (1914-1918)

Date of Enlistment

03/12/1915

Date of Discharge

03/08/1919

Place of Enlistment

Casula NSW

Gender

Male

Date of Birth

12/12/1882

Place of Birth

London, England

Address (at enlistment)

Duntroon ACT

Occupation

Labourer

Next of Kin

George Newport, Southend, England

Service Number

2823

Final Rank

Private

Final Unit

2 Machine Gun Squadron, 2 Light Horse Brigade AIF

Newport was a 33 year old classroom cleaner at the Royal Military College, Duntroon when he enlisted in December 1915. He served with the 6th Light Horse Regiment in the Sinai from August 1916 before transferring to the 2nd Machine Gun Squadron in October 1916. He received a gun shot wound to the left thigh at Tel-Khuwelfe in Palestine on 6 November 1917. According to the official history of the AIF, Newport's unit had rushed to the relief of an imperilled Camel battalion and, despite being under "murderous machine gun and shrapnel fire", "there is compensation in the thought of the splendid dash and daring with which the mounted machine-gunners raced their teams forward to almost certain destruction under a hail of fire".

Newport returned to Australia and was discharged in August 1919 after which he returned to work at RMC until 1931. He died on 27 August 1981 and his remains were interred in the memorial wall at Gungahlin Cemetery. He was present at the Canberra naming ceremony on 12 March 1913 and also served in World War 2. His son George served in the Navy during World War 2. Newport died on 27 August 1981 aged 98 years, the longest lived of the World War 1 veterans on the ACT Memorial. He is commemorated at Norwood Park in Gungahlin.

Description - height 6 feet, weight 136 pounds, chest 36½ inches, fair complexion, blue eyes, Church of England.

Ross Howarth, 'Civilians employed at the Royal Military College of Australia, Duntroon, from 1911 to 1931', RMC Duntroon, November 2000
WWII Nominal Roll http://www.ww2roll.gov.au
NAA RecordSearch - Series B2455 (First Australian Imperial Force Personnel Dossiers, 1914-1920)
Henry Gullett, 'The Australian Imperial Force in Sinai and Palestine: 1914-1918' (pp. 423, 424)
Canberra News - 16 March 1973
The Canberra Times - 29 June 2000
Information provided by Peter Keast (grandson)