46 Facts About Charles Norris-Newman

Charles Louis Marie William Norris-Newman was a British journalist, adventurer and intelligence officer with the Russian Navy.

Charles Norris-Newman was present at the Action at Sihayo's Kraal, narrowly avoided the massacre of the British at the Battle of Isandlwana and was among the first group to ride into Rorke's Drift after the battle.

Charles Norris-Newman took up arms in the Battle of Gingindlovu, was the first to ride into the besieged settlement of Eshowe and was present at the final action, the Battle of Ulundi.

Charles Norris-Newman afterwards joined Digby Willoughby in Basutoland and Madagascar.

Charles Norris-Newman afterwards spent time in East Asia and in 1900, having fled creditors in China, married a former prostitute in Japan.

Charles Norris-Newman was abusive to his wife and child, who died young, and she divorced him in 1908.

From 1902 Charles Norris-Newman worked for the Imperial Russian Navy first as an English teacher and then in publishing a journal in the Far East, eventually being granted the rank of lieutenant-colonel.

Charles Norris-Newman was born on 22 August 1852 at Elvington Hall, Yorkshire, England.

Charles Norris-Newman was the son of C Sherwood Newman and the Countess de Rosa Y Robyns.

Charles Norris-Newman was educated at Sherborne, Lubeck and Harrow and is known to have received a military education.

Charles Norris-Newman was present at the Siege of Paris during the Franco-Prussian War and was decorated for his service during the battle by the city's governor Louis-Jules Trochu.

Charles Norris-Newman accompanied Infante Carlos, Duke of Madrid during the Third Carlist War and was with General Charles George Gordon during his service in Egypt.

Charles Norris-Newman filed for bankruptcy in December 1875, whilst he was living on Kennington Park Road in Surrey.

Charles Norris-Newman was contracted as a special correspondent to The Standard but by arrangement his reporting was made available to the local newspapers the Times of Natal and the Cape Standard and Mail.

Charles Norris-Newman attached himself to the 3rd Regiment of the Natal Native Contingent, a black African force led by white officers and non-commissioned officers.

Uncertain if the post had fallen to the Zulu attack Charles Norris-Newman was with the first party to approach and enter it, having discovered that the defenders had prevailed.

Charles Norris-Newman gathered news of the defence before riding to the telegraph office at Pietermaritzburg, from where he filed a report to The Standard.

Charles Norris-Newman accompanied the relief expedition for the Siege of Eshowe.

Charles Norris-Newman was the first man to enter Eshowe upon its relief, racing the correspondent of the Argus for the honour and beating him by five minutes.

Zulu War historian Donald R Morris regarded the book as "brisk and accurate" for the parts of the war that Norris-Newman witnessed but otherwise liable to include hearsay.

Charles Norris-Newman featured in the 1979 film Zulu Dawn, portrayed by English actor Ronald Lacey as an "acidic" commentator on the invasion.

Charles Norris-Newman was still in Southern Africa when the First Boer War broke out late in 1880 between the British and the Transvaal Boers.

Charles Norris-Newman was determined to report the war from the Boer point of view but failed to reach their lines before the ceasefire was declared.

Charles Norris-Newman remained to witness the peace negotiations and wrote With the Boers in the Transvaal about his experiences.

Charles Norris-Newman was dismissed after 18 months for embezzlement of town funds.

Charles Norris-Newman was then in Zanzibar and Central Africa until 1891, reporting on military campaigns there.

Charles Norris-Newman's reports were published in The Times, the Pall Mall Gazette and the Daily Mail.

Charles Norris-Newman wrote the books The Basuto and their Country and South African Stories.

Charles Norris-Newman was chief intelligence officer to the Bulawayo Field Force and a colonial official.

Charles Norris-Newman left Africa for East Asia before the turn of the century.

Charles Norris-Newman spent time in Ceylon, Malaya, China and Japan.

At the time of his marriage Charles Norris-Newman was in financial difficulty, having fled his creditors in Shanghai.

Charles Norris-Newman asked Finch to request money from her father and when she refused began to subject her to physical abuse.

Charles Norris-Newman assaulted Finch again in February 1901 when Finch tried to stop him from dosing their crying and ill child with chlorodyne.

Charles Norris-Newman afterwards visited a brothel, telling them to bill his father-in-law.

In 1902 Charles Norris-Newman entered the employ of the Imperial Russian Navy, serving as an English language instructor at Port Arthur where he lived openly with a mistress.

Charles Norris-Newman travelled to Hong Kong but there received a letter from Norris-Newman telling her to go to her father at Yokohoma.

Finch there gathered evidence of Charles Norris-Newman's continuing infidelity, with which she was assisted by members of his family.

Charles Norris-Newman applied for a divorce in 1907 and a decree nisi was awarded in 1908 with costs awarded against Norris-Newman.

Charles Norris-Newman founded the China Review in Hankow, the first Russian journal in the Far East.

Charles Norris-Newman noted they were being translated into Chinese and being printed in the Chinese press.

Charles Norris-Newman asked Colonel Alfred W S Wingate, in charge of intelligence in North China, to have Norris-Newman arrested by the British consul on charges of endeavouring to create a breach of the peace; it is not clear if this took place.

Charles Norris-Newman was during this period granted the rank of lieutenant-colonel by Russia and paid a retainer of $1,000 a month.

Charles Norris-Newman's hobbies were noted as riding, shooting and philately and he is stated to be a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and a Provincial Senior Grand Warden with the freemasons.

Charles Norris-Newman launched a court case to recover the stamps, or their value which he stated as $1,500.

Charles Norris-Newman died of stomach cancer at Victoria Hospital, Tianjin in May 1920.