Orders, Decorations and Medals

An important Gallipoli D.S.O. group awarded to Colonel S.F. Newcombe, Royal Engineers who, as Chief of the British Military Mission in the Hejaz, was one of the 'Five Musketeers' with Lawrence who played a key role in the Arab Revolt and the demolition raids on the Hejaz railway

DISTINGUISHED SERVICE ORDER, G.V.R.; QUEEN'S SOUTH AFRICA 1899-1902,4 clasps, Relief of Kimberley, Paardeberg, Driefontein, Transvaal (Lieut., R.E.); 1914 MONS STAR (Capt., R.E.) fitted with contemporary copy Mons bar; BRITISH WAR AND VICTORY MEDALS, M.I.D. (Lt. Col.); France LEGION OF HONOUR, 5th class breast badge, some chipping to the white enamel; Italy ORDER OF THE CROWN, 4th class breast badge in gold and enamels; Turkey ORDER OF OSMANIEH, 4th class breast badge in silver, gilt and enamels, some chips to green enamel, the group mounted on a contemporary bar as worn, unless otherwise described very fine or better (8)

D.S.O., London Gazette, 22nd January 1916: 'For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty near Anzac, Gallipoli Peninsula, on 29th October, 1915. During rescue operations he entered a mine tunnel soon after the first casualties were reported, and, although suffering from the effects of fumes, he continued to lead rescue parties till he was completely disabled by the gas. One officer lost his life on this occasion in the attempt at rescue.’

Stewart Francis Newcombe (1874-1956) was born at Brecon, the son of Edward Newcombe, and educated at Christ's Hospital and Felsted. He passed first into the R.M.A. Woolwich, with the vary rare distinction of 100 per cent marks in mathematics, and on passing out he was awarded the Sword of Honour. Commissioned in the Royal Engineers on 23rd June, 1898, he served in the South African War, joining the 29th Fortress Company at Cape Town in Feburary, 1900. His long contact with the Arab countries dates from May, 1901, when he joined the Egyptian army with which he served until 1911. His work lay largely in the Sudan, mainly on surveys for new railways in the Wadi Halfa, Blue Nile, and Atbara areas. In 1913 and the early part of 1914, following short spells at the War Office, he carried out a survey of the southern Palestine borderland across the Sinai Peninsula to Beersheba, under the auspices of the Palestine Exploration Fund, prolonging the original survey to the Egyptian frontier and connecting it with the work of the Egyptian Survey Department. Whilst engaged on this survey, he was joined at Beersheba by Leonard Woolley and T.E. Lawrence who had been appointed as archaeological explorers. Thus began a life long period of friendship and collaboration with Lawrence of Arabia.

'The Five Musketeers’

In the early months of the Great War Newcombe served on the Western Front, but when Turkey entered the war he was sent out to Egypt as assistant to Gilbert Clayton, who was head of both the Military and Political Intelligence Services there. Among the picked group of officers who went out with Newcombe in December, 1914, were George Lloyd, Aubrey Herbert, Leonard Woolley, and T.E. Lawrence. This party became known as the 'Five Musketeers'. Newcombe served at Gallipoli from September, 1915, until January, 1916, as C.R.E. 2nd Australian Division and was awarded the D.S.O. for gallantry. This was followed by a further nine months in France until at the end of 1916 he was appointed Chief of the British Military Mission with the Sherif of Mecca's forces in the Hejaz. T.E. Lawrence had preceded him there and had already established good relations with the Arab leaders. Typically, Newcombe promptly waived his own seniority and asked how best he could help. After the capture of Wejh, the demolition raids on the Hejaz railway were largely his personal work. They were masterly, in that they were not intended to 'kill' the railway completely. A considerable enemy force was thus permanently employed in guarding, repairing and operating the line in return for a mere trickle of traffic which was probably allowed to pass deliberately. Lawrence made the apt comment that Newcombe 'did four times as much as any other Englishman would have done and 10 times as much as the Arabs thought necessary!' The Arabs, indeed, found his leadership and driving force exhausting, as well as too bold for their taste, and in a blended tribute and complaint said: 'Newcombe is like fire, he burns friend and enemy.' Without his intense activity the Turks would have suffered less trouble and interference than they did during his critical period.

Capture and Imprisonment

In June, 1917, Newcombe was appointed G.S.O. I., E.E.F. In September he proposed, and Sir Edmund Allenby agreed, that he should take a small party through the desert, well east of Beersheba (country which he knew well from earlier surveys), to raise the Bedouin against the Turks and to cut the Hebron road after Beersheba was captured. In due course, with seventy camelry and a few Arab scouts, he cut the enemy telegraph line to Jerusalem and blocked the main road north of Dhahriye for some forty hours, causing the enemy to move considerable forces east of Sheria just at the critical time. Newcombe dispersed with loss the first attack by a hundred Turks. Next day, much larger Turkish forces under a German officer attacked from north and south. With twenty men killed, many more wounded, most of his machine guns disabled, and no other force dependent on him, Newcombe surrendered. The effect of Newcombe's effort in Hebron is mentioned in 'Yilderim' by the German Obergeneralarzt Steuber. The British Official History remarks that 'Newcombe's force had an effect altogether disproportionate to its size.' Newcombe was imprisoned in Constantinople with General C.V.F. Townshend, defender of Kut.

Escape and Marriage

Early in 1918 he met a French lady, Mlle. Elsie Chaki whom he befriended. Shortly afterwards, when he was moved to the P.O.W. camp at Brusa on the Asiatic side, about 75 miles from Constantinople, it was she who arranged for a fishing boat and crew to wait at Moudania, the port for Brusa. In due course Newcombe made his escape in disguise, covering the twenty miles to Moudania by night where he located the boat. The two Greek fishermen sailed with an unusually big Arab passenger, but only daylight at sea revealed that he also had unusually blue eyes. It took 48 hours to cross the sea of Marmora. Back in Constantinople, Newcombe went into hiding and, at the request of the New Party in Turkey, he drafted peace proposals. Raouf Orbay, later to become Prime Minister of Turkey and then Turkish Ambassador in London, took the proposals and Newcombe to sea. They were picked up by H.M.S. Liverpool, taken to Mudros and thence to London where Newcombe married Mlle. Chaki in April, 1919. When their son was born early in 1920, he was christened Stuart Lawrence in recognition of the great friendship that had grown between the two men. Furthermore Lawrence himself accepted the invitation to be the boy's godfather. In recognition of his war services Newcombe was awarded, in addition to the D.S.O., the Crown of Italy (Officer), the Legion of Honour (Knight), the Osmanieh (4th class), the Medjidie (3rd class), and the Hejaz Order of El Nahda (2nd class). He was mentioned in despatches four times and given Brevet rank of Lieutenant Colonel. After the first World War he served in turn in Syria, Ireland, Palestine, England, the British Army of the Rhine and Egypt. In Syria he made what was probably the first of all aerial surveys and he was awarded the Montgomerie Prize for an article published in the RE. Journal in 1921 on 'Contouring by the Stereoscope on air photos'. He went to Malta in 1929 as Chief Engineer, retiring in 1932. As the result of his contacts with the Anzacs in the first World War, Newcombe later did much to promote emigration of British ex-servicemen to Australia which he visited in 1923. From the first World War to the day of his death, he also proved a remarkable friend to Arab and Jew alike in the Near East. His sound constructive advice was acknowledged at the time, and later in numerous letters received by his family from both parties after they learned of his death.

In May, 1935, T.E. Lawrence was killed in a motor-cycle accident and Colonel Newcombe was able to pay his last respects to his old friend as one of the six pall-bearers at the funeral.

In 1940 and again in 1943. when well over 60, he undertook with success two political missions to Baghdad, travelling by the Mediterranean route. For most of his retirement he was an active member or official of the Palestine Exploration Fund and also of the Royal Central Asian Society, in both of which he was deeply interested. Throughout his life Newcombe hated pomp and pomposity. He was unassuming, accessible, sound and scrupulously fair, if stern, in his judgements and advice, to men of all races and of all ranks. Those of his own Corps and others who served above or below him in war or peace, will always remember his driving power on any job, his audacity and boldness in conception and execution, his wonderful capacity for friendship and that love of fun and unfailing cheerfulness which merely increased when difficulties arose.