George Newark of Stoke on Trent, Staffordshire came from a family of potters, a very common trade in a part of England renowned for its pottery manufacture.  He was born about 1811 to John Newark and his wife Sarah (née Barber) and was one of eight siblings.  However, most of what is known about George comes from his army service record as he joined the Second Regiment of Life Guards at age nineteen years seven months.  A tall young man, standing over 6 feet 1 inch, he enlisted for the usual bounty of the King's shilling on November 18, 1830 as a Private, service number 406.  Altogether he served fifteen years and 156 days in the regiment during which his conduct was described as very good and for which he was awarded two distinguishing Marks of Good Conduct. One of these was forfeited for being absent from 1 pm on July 11, 1841 to 8.10 am on July 13, 1841 but regained a couple of years later.  All of his service time was spent in his home country with no overseas service and at the end of his military engagement he remained a private.

Discharge from the Regiment

He was discharged from the Regiment at the Windsor Cavalry Barracks on the 22nd of April 1846. Except for the circumstances of his discharge for medical reasons, it might be said that his service career was not particularly distinguished.

The Surgeon's certificate when George was recruited stated "he has no Rupture nor mark of an old Wound or Ulcer adhering to the bone: he is free from Varicose Veins of the legs, and has the full power of motion of the joints and Limbs.  He is well formed, and has no Scrofulous Affection of the Glands, Scald Head, or other inveterate Cutaneous eruptions: he is free from any trace of corporal Punishment:  His respiration is easy, and his Lungs appear to be sound ....I consider him fit for His Majesty's Service". 

By April 22, 1846 his state of health had radically changed.  A Medical Report by the Regimental Surgeon at that times reads as follows; "Pt. George Newark is now, and has been for months past the subject of a very severe and unusual form of chronic Bronchitis.  I believe the trachea at its bifurcation to be diminished in caliber from some unknown cause.  A great deal has been done for him both in and out of hospital but without avail.  His breathing is occasionally so much affected that I do not believe him fit for any kind of labour.  The sight of his left eye is likewise imperfect and this occasionally interferes much with the vision of the right one".  Poor George's health was so bad in fact that he died at age 35 years in 1846 very shortly after his discharge.

Manslaughter

Now let's move on to a seemingly unrelated situation involving Elizabeth Newark who was brought before the Old Bailey Court in London to face a charge of manslaughter.  On July 13, 1842, Elizabeth, described as "a servant at one of the questionable houses" in the vicinity of York Square, Regent's Park, entered the Sovereign Public House.  There she encountered an intoxicated William Oates, 29, a journeyman painter, an alcoholic known in the neighbourhood as "My Lord Tom Noddy".  Accounts in the press vary but it appears that they had some gin together after which he tried to kiss her.  She pushed him away and upon him making a second attempt she declared "if you do I will knock you down Tom Noddy".  Notwithstanding her warning he attempted a second time to kiss her and she struck him in the face with a door key she held in her hands.  Bleeding, he went home to his mother's and stated "that Irish prostitute" had struck him on the nose and then he went to bed.  The next day he threatened to take out an assault warrant against her but lacked the money to do so. Shortly after, according to the Morning Post of Aug 12, 1842, he was removed to the University College Hospital, Gower Street in great pain "with his face frightfully swollen and was attacked with erysipelas".  On July 19th., six days after being struck by Elizabeth, he died.  Following an inquest, the jury returned a verdict of manslaughter against Elizabeth and she was remanded to the New Prison to await trial.  Evidence presented at her Old Bailey trial by two surgeons indicated that erysipelas was the cause of William Oates death and they could not say with any certainty that the blow caused the erysipelas and was therefore the reason for the death.  The prisoner Elizabeth Newark was acquitted on August 22, 1842.

Death of Elizabeth

Throughout the media attention drawn to this case, no information was reported about Elizabeth Newark herself other than derogatory comments impuning her morals.  It is not until another tragic event some four years later, this time the death of Elizabeth, that we learn anything about her.  According to news reports, she drowned in a canal near the Sovereign Public House on April 17, 1846.  The following, obviously inaccurate and biased report, was published in The Morning Post, Tuesday April 21, 1846 and reprinted in several newspapers:

"Suicide of a female recently liberated from imprisonment for manslaughter - On Monday, Mr. T Wakley, M.P. held an inquest at the Elephant and Castle, Camden Town, on the body of Elizabeth Newarke, aged thirty three, the wife of a soldier in the second regiment of Life Guards now stationed at Windsor.  The object of the inquiry was well known as a dissolute and dissipated character, in the neighbourhood of the Regent's Park, and the proceedings excited some interest, from the following circumstances connected with her history.  About two and a half years ago the deceased was indicted at the old Bailey for the manslaughter of a poor fellow called ‘My Lord Tom Noddy’ whom she killed at the Sovereign public-house in Munster Street, Regent's Park, by poking his eye out with her street-door key.  She was sentenced to two years imprisonment, which being completed about six months back, she resorted to her old habits of intemperance, and again frequented the Royal sovereign, which house she left at about half-past one on Friday Morning last, apparently sober, although she had been drinking there for some hours.  She was then seen walking on the Canal banks by a constable, and in a little while after, her body was found in the Canal, by the same officer.  The Jury returned a verdict of ‘Found dead in the Regent's Canal’; but how she came into the water not known"

This information tells us that Elizabeth Newark was born about 1813 and that she was the wife of a soldier in the second Regiment of Life Guards stationed at Windsor - obviously none other than George Newark from Staffordshire (although no marriage record has been found).  With her death at age 33 coming just five days before his discharge from the Windsor Cavalry Barracks and his own imminent death, the question that springs to mind is whether the two events are related.  Perhaps in despondency over her situation and the worse for alcohol, maybe she did drown her sorrows and herself.  We will never know.

Strange but similar Afflictions

This does not quite end the somewhat strange events surrounding George Newark.  There is the case of his strange affliction, namely stricture of the trachea, blindness and early death.  For some insight we can turn to the condition of Charles Newrick (1793-1841) of Lowestoft, Suffolk. We know of him today due to his death from a constricted trachea and the scientific paper that was written about it. In 1833 Charles contracted syphilis.  By 1837 he was emaciated, very feeble and confined to his house.  He also suffered much uneasiness in his throat, so much so that his situation came to the attention of W.C. Worthington, Senior Surgeon of the Lowestoft Infirmary.  Doctor Worthington was surprised by Charles’ breathing, describing it as follows; “his (Charles) state of breathing more particularly arrested my attention, as regarded both the peculiarity of the noise attendant upon inspiration, and the very painful effort required for its accomplishment. In the ordinary act of inspiring, a sound was produced, exactly resembling that produced by an unsound horse, called a roarer or whistler…each inspiration occupied ten seconds, the chest expanding only six times in a minute”.

Dr. Worthington determined that the problem was an impediment in either the trachea or the larynx to the free passage of air into the lungs.  Restricted by the state of medical knowledge in the 1830s there was little Dr. Worthington could do beyond palliative treatment.  On the 15th March 1841 Charles Newrick died, suffocated in less than five minutes by particles of food from his breakfast of bread and milk. An autopsy on Charles found a constriction in the trachea “the calibre of the strictured portion not exceeding that of a crow-quill”.  An old ulceration of the epiglottis was also found and it was concluded extremely probable that the tracheal disease had a syphilitic origin.

The scientific report published by Dr. Worthington in 1842 had in all probability not come to the notice of the army surgeon who attended George Newark about four years later.  Even if it had, there would have been very little that could have been done to help George.  It also seems sad to think that possibly it was through conjugal relations with his wife Elizabeth that he contracted syphilis leading to the tracheal complications that caused his death, or that on the other hand he contracted it elsewhere and passed it to her.

As a footnote to this story, Newrick is a variation of the name Newark.  Charles Newrick's father was actually named Newark but from Suffolk and not at all related to the Newark families of Staffordshire.  “My Lord Tom Noddy” was the title of a popular 18^th and 19^th century song which parodied the idle, ne’er-do-well, privileged sons of the peerage.  This title, by which William Oates was known, was doubly ironic given that he was clearly a low-class ne’er-do-well not remotely entitled even to be called My Lord Tom Noddy. With regard to erysipelas (a streptococcal infection), it is now known that people with alcoholism are at increased risk of it, a complication is the deadly necrotizing fasciitis or flesh-eating disease and erysipelas infections can enter the skin through minor trauma (among other methods). Stricture of the trachea is today known as laryngotracheal stenosis (LTS) and is considered a term for a group of very rare conditions caused by chronic inflammatory diseases among other things.

Sources

(1)   Various newspapers on FindMyPast.co.uk

(2)   A Case“ of Stricture of the Trachea” by W.C.Worthington, Esq., senior surgeon to the Lowestoft Infirmary, in Medico-Chirurgical Transactions published by the Medical And Chirurgical Society of London, 1842 pp 220 – 226.

(3)   Royal Hospital Chelsea: Soldiers Service Documents WO 97/7/107. The National Archives

(4)   Proceedings of the Old Bailey, Tenth Session, 1841-42 pp 843-844