Victor Marra Newland

Major Victor Marra Newland, MC, DCM (18 August? 2 November 1876? – 12 January 1953) was an Australian army officer and politician. He served in the Second Boer War and with the King's African Rifles in World War I, and was decorated for his service in each, retiring with the rank of major. He was formerly a member of the Legislative Council of British East Africa, and in 1933 became the representative for North Adelaide in the South Australian House of Assembly.

History

Newland was born at Marra station, near Wilcannia, New South Wales, the third son of Simpson Newland (1835–1925) and his wife Jane Isabella Newland, née Layton (c. 1850 – 11 January 1939). He was educated at Queen's School, North Adelaide, and St. Peter's College. He joined the South Australian Mounted Rifles and sailed to South Africa with the second contingent of the Light Horse and served in the Boer War. He was awarded the Distinguished Conduct medal and the Queen's medal with five clasps.

After the war he remained in Africa. He acted as manager for a land and stock agency in Nairobi, British East Africa (now Kenya) in 1903, then two years later with fellow South Australian Leslie Jefferis Tarlton (1877–c. 1950) he formed Newland, Tarlton & Co. Ltd., organizing big-game safaris for wealthy patrons, including Theodore Roosevelt in 1909–1910. Newland was a president of the Associated Chambers of Commerce, a member of the Kenya's Legislative Council, and chairman of the Nairobi Town Council.

He was holidaying in Australia at the outbreak of World War I, and returned to Kenya. He joined the King's African Rifles and fought in the German East Africa campaign, reaching the rank of Major and winning the MC and the OBE and was mentioned in dispatches three times.

Newland returned to Adelaide where in 1923 he was made a member of the Stock Exchange, and three years later became a partner in the firm of Newland and Hunter. Almost up to the time of his death, his interests and his influence remained wide-spread.

In 1933 he was elected member for North Adelaide in the House of Assembly and served to 1938.

He was buried at Victor Harbor.^[1]

Other interests

• Newland was famous as a big game hunter
• He was a member of the Council of the Zoological Society for more than 20 years.
• He was president of the Royal Society of St. George.
• He was closely associated with the British Imperial Servicemen's sub-branch of the RSL.

Family

Rev. Ridgway William Newland (c. 1788 – 8 March 1864) was married to Martha Newland, née Keeling (c. 1797 – 13 April 1870), arrived in South Australia with six children aboard Sir Charles Forbes in June 1839.

• Simpson Newland (2 November 1835 – 27 June 1925) married Jane Isabella Layton (c. 1850 – 11 January 1939) on 12 September 1872

• Victor Marra Newland (1876–1953) married Elsie Margaret Porter (1879 – 11 February 1950) on 20 April 1909. Their family included:

• Elaine Newland ( – ) married Robert Henry Wreford (1909–1990) on 8 July 1936. He was managing director, G. & R. Wills from 1961; lived in North Adelaide.
• Margaret Elizabeth Newland ( – ) married Richard Hampden Dutton (6 August 1909 – 13 December 1940), son of Henry Hampden Dutton on 25 February 1933. She married again, to Sidney Downer (September 1909 – September 1969) on 8 September 1948. They separated around 1960.^[2]

• Col. Henry Simpson Newland DSO, CBE (1873–1969)
• Philip Mesmer "Phil" Newland (2 February 1875 – 11 August 1916), noted cricketer
• Dr. Clive Newland (1878 – 25 January 1919) killed when he rode his motorcycle into a railway train.
• Ralph Dimmock Newland (1880 – 20 September 1933) married Hazel Thornton Creswell (c. 1887 – 4 November 1915) on 7 June 1909. He married Mildred Faith Dinning in 1930.

Sources

• Serle, Percival (1949). "Newland, Simpson". Dictionary of Australian Biography. Sydney: Angus and Robertson. 
• Jenkin, G. K. Newland, Victor Marra (1876 - 1953), Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 11, Melbourne University Press, 1988, pp 10–12.

References