| Regimental number | 3400 |
| Place of birth | St Peters, Sydney, New South Wales |
| School | State School and Technical College |
| Religion | Methodist |
| Occupation | Bootmaker |
| Address | Junction Road, Morningside, Brisbane, Queensland |
| Marital status | Single |
| Age at embarkation | 19 |
| Height | 5' 8" |
| Weight | 128 lbs |
| Next of kin | Mother, Mrs M E Newton, Junction Road, Morningside, Brisbane, Queensland |
| Previous military service | Served in the 9th Infantry Bn, Citizen Military Forces (Colour Sergeant). |
| Enlistment date | |
| Rank on enlistment | Private |
| Unit name | 15th Battalion, 11th Reinforcement |
| AWM Embarkation Roll number | 23/32/2 |
| Embarkation details | Unit embarked from Brisbane, Queensland, on board HMAT A48 Seang Bee on |
| Rank from Nominal Roll | Corporal |
| Unit from Nominal Roll | 4th Machine Gun Battalion |
| Other details from Roll of Honour Circular | 'Was buried at Westhoek Ridge, Ypres, Belgium.' |
| Fate | Killed in Action |
| Place of death or wounding | Ypres, Belgium |
| Age at death | 21 |
| Age at death from cemetery records | 21 |
| Place of burial | No known grave |
| Commemoration details | The Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial (Panel 31), Belgium The Menin Gate Memorial (so named because the road led to the town of Menin) was constructed on the site of a gateway in the eastern walls of the old Flemish town of Ypres, Belgium, where hundreds of thousands of allied troops passed on their way to the front, the Ypres salient, the site from April 1915 to the end of the war of some of the fiercest fighting of the war. The Memorial was conceived as a monument to the 350,000 men of the British Empire who fought in the campaign. Inside the arch, on tablets of Portland stone, are inscribed the names of 56,000 men, including 6,178 Australians, who served in the Ypres campaign and who have no known grave. The opening of the Menin Gate Memorial on 24 July 1927 so moved the Australian artist Will Longstaff that he painted 'The Menin Gate at Midnight', which portrays a ghostly army of the dead marching past the Menin Gate. The painting now hangs in the Australian War Memorial, Canberra, at the entrance of which are two medieval stone lions presented to the Memorial by the City of Ypres in 1936. Since the 1930s, with the brief interval of the German occupation in the Second World War, the City of Ypres has conducted a ceremony at the Memorial at dusk each evening to commemorate those who died in the Ypres campaign. |
| Panel number, Roll of Honour, Australian War Memorial | 178 |
| Miscellaneous information from cemetery records | Parents: Arthur and Myra NEWTON, Latrobe Street, East Brisbane. Native of Sydney |
| Other details |
War service: Egypt, Western Front Joined 15th Bn, Tel el Kebir, 6 March 1916. Transferred to 47th Bn, 9 March 1916; to 15th Bn, 13 March 1916. Proceeded from Alexandria to join the British Expeditionary Force,1 June 1916; disembarked Marseilles, 8 June 1916. Transferred to 4th Machine Gun Company, 3 October 1916. Appointed Temporary Lance Corporal, 22 April 1917; Temporary Corporal, 14 June 1917; Corporal, 12 July 1917. Killed in action, Belgium, 24 September 1917. Corporal McDonald wrote from France to NEWTON's mother, 30 March 1918: ' ... I was with him when he was killed ... I can tell you that poor Les never suffered any pain as the shell hit almost on top of him as he was lying down and he never even moved or spoke. I think that it was more concussion than wounds that killed him as he was not knocked about hardly at all. I don't think he knew he was hit as he had a very peaceful look on his face afterwards.' Medals: 1914-15 Star, British War Medal, Victory Medal |
Postal Address:
Po Box 7916
Canberra BC 2610, Australia
Street Address:
Northcott Drive,
Campbell, ACT 2600
