Six: Petty Officer T. Newton, Royal Navy, who served aboard H.M.A.S. Sydney in action against S.M.S. Emden

China 1900, 1 clasp, Taku Forts (P.O. 1Cl., H.M.S. Algerine) edge bruise; 1914-15 Star (O.N.8064 P.O.); British War and Victory Medals (O.N.8064 P.O.), ‘Victory’ officially re-impressed; Royal Navy L.S. & G.C., G.V.R., 1st issue (8064 Thomas Newton, P.O.), officially engraved Australian issue, mounted as worn; H.M.A.S. Sydney - S.M.S. Emden Medal, 9 November 1914, silver Mexican Dollar dated ‘1882’, mounted by W. Kerr, Sydney, last nearly very fine; others with slight contact marks, generally very fine (6) £1200-1500

Thomas Newton was born in Southampton on 20 November 1870. He entered the Royal Navy on 26 October 1886 as a Boy 2nd Class serving on Impregnable. He was advanced to Boy 1st Class on the Ganges in November 1887; Ordinary Seaman on the Neptune in November 1888, and Able Seaman on the Plover in July 1890. Briefly promoted to Leading Seaman in July 1895 when on the Lapwing, he was demoted the following month to Able Seaman and given 28 days hard labour for some misdemenour. He regained his rank when on the Collingwood in November 1898 and was advanced to Petty Officer 2nd Class when on Vivid I in February 1900. Newton served on the Sloop Algerine, February 1900-May 1903, during which time he was promoted to Petty Officer 1st Class and gained the China Medal with clasp for Taku Forts. His final posting was as Petty Officer 1st Class on the Leander, being pensioned ashore on 31 January 1911. Newton joined the R.F.R. at Devonport in February 1911. He returned to service with the Royal Australian Navy in April 1913 and served as Petty Officer on the Penguin, May 1913-July 1914; Sydney, July 1914-September 1919; Brisbane, September 1919-January 1920, and was demobilised on 5 July 1920.

Newton was serving aboard the 2nd Class Cruiser H.M.A.S. Sydney on 9 November 1914 when the ship encountered the German Light Cruiser S.M.S. Emden off the Cocos (Keeling) Islands. In a short but spectacular career in the Indian Ocean the Emden (Captain Karl von Müller) had bombarded Madras and captured or sunk some 23 allied vessels including a Russian cruiser and a French destroyer. In action with the Sydney, the slower and outgunned Emden was eventually beached in a wrecked condition on North Keeling Island. Sold with copied service paper.