Ancestor Details

Acsestor's Name: Victor Mara Newland

Ancestor's date of birth: 18/08/1876

Ancestor's date of death: 12/01/1953

Cause of Death: Natural causes

Service and Life Before the Boer War: Wool Clerk, Elder Smith and Co

Service Number: 59

Colony or State of enlistment: SA, Place of Enlistment: Adelaide

Unit: 2^nd South Australian Mounted Rifles

Rank attained in Boer War: LCPL, Date Effective: 1900

Highest Rank attained (if served after war): MAJ, Date Effective: 1914-1918

Murray Page: 351

Contingent: Second South Australian.

Ship: Surrey, Date of Sailing: 21/01/1900

Memorial details: Detail not provided

Awards/Decorations/Commendations: Distinguished Conduct Medal (DCM), Mentioned in Despatches (MID), Queen's South Africa Medal with Cape Colony, Free State, Transvaal and SA 1901 clasps (may have had other clasp entitlements). Military Cross (MC), Mentioned in Despatches twice (MID), British War Medal, Victory Medal (may also have been entitled to the 1914/15 Star).

Personal Characteristics: Detail not provided

Reasons to go and fight: Detail not provided

Details of service in war: March 1900 - March 1901 in northwest Cape Colony, Free State, and east Transvaal. Mentioned in Despatches, London Gazette 16/04/1901. Awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal (DCM).

Service and life after the Boer War: In 1903 in Nairobi, British East Africa (Kenya), he ran a land and stock agency. Two years later he formed Newland, Tarlton and Co. Ltd, safari outfitters. Newland was a president of the Associated Chambers of Commerce and a member of the colony's Legislative Council. In 1909 he married Elsie Margaret Porter. In World War I he joined the King's African Rifles and, in a campaign where 'one lived like a pig and died like a dog', attained the rank of major, was twice mentioned in dispatches, and was awarded the Military Cross and O.B.E. Newland returned to Adelaide in 1919, formed the firm V. M. Newland & Hunter, and joined the Stock Exchange in 1923. In 1933-38 he represented North Adelaide for the Liberal and Country League in the House of Assembly. Survived by two daughters, Newland died in Adelaide on 12 January 1953. [Australian Dictionary of Biography]

Descendant Details

Name of Descendant: Ian Matheson, Paddington NSW
Relationship to Ancestor: Great Grandson

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