SASSOON’S "FERNBY"

This is a photograph of the man (and his grave), described by Sassoon in "Memoirs of An Infantry Officer" as "Fernby"- a very well regarded subaltern serving with Sassoon in the 1^st Bn.Royal Welch Fusiliers. He had met this officer holding a bombing post near Wood Trench just after the battalion had captured Quadrangle Trench on 4^th July 1916. Leaving "Fernby"at the bombing post, Sassoon picked up a bag of Mills bombs and went down Wood Trench throwing hand grenades at the enemy

"Fernby" was in fact 2^nd Lt. Vivian Frederic Newton. Sassoon had left the battalion on 23^rd July 1916 with a high temperature suffering from Trench Fever and thus missed the battalion’s attack at Ginchy (near Delville Wood) on 3^rd September. Among the casualties in that attack, (another was Sassoon’s friend Edmund Dadd), was 2^nd Lt Newton who was wounded and then taken to hospital in Rouen where he died on the 15^th September 1916 at the age of 19.

Newton had been educated at Cheltenham College and Sandhurst, joining the battalion in May 1916. Lt.Colonel Stockwell, his Commanding Officer, (apparently known to his men as "Buffalo Bill"), in writing to Newton’s parents wrote: " A charming boy-always keen and full of pluck; so much so that I especially selected him to go to the grenadier company, the picked company of the battalion…….His loss will be felt by all of us who were his brother officers as he was universally liked because of his straightness and keenness."

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