Another corner of a foreign field: Newbould and Manoliasa

Rupert Brooke’s grave on the Aegean island of Skyros is well known to many. I once walked there – it is a beautiful spot. Cared for by the Commonwealth Graves Commission, his gravestone is engraved with his famous poem ‘The Soldier’:

If I should die, think only this of me;
That there’s some corner of a foreign field
That is for ever England.
…

Next year, on 23 April 1915, will be the hundredth centenary of his death – an opportunity to remember him alongside the many war poets of WWI.

Yet many will not know of another Englishman who lies buried in another small corner of a foreign field, in the mountains of Northern Greece. Unlike Brooke this man was not a poet. But he was I suspect inspired by the same ideals of freedom that led Byron to champion the cause of Greek independence during the nineteenth century.

Thomas Palmer Newbould, who hailed from Birmingham, was an active Liberal and a member of the House of Commons Balkan Committee. Clearly a man of action who wished to fight for Greek independence, he signed up as a volunteer in the Greek army twice, first in the Greco-Turkish War of 1897, and secondly in the Balkan Wars of 1912-13. Here’s what the newspaper The Evening Post (15 February 1913) had to say: ‘It was his love of freedom that impelled him to throw in his lot with the Greeks in the war against Turkey in 1897 and again in this present campaign. […] For his conduct in the Turco-Greek campaign of 1897 Mr. Newbould was promoted to a lieutenancy on the battlefield, and when the war was over he was made an officer of the Order of the Redeemer, one of the highest honours conferred by the Greek Government.’ A memorial service held for him in London on January 2 1913 was attended by Elevtherios Venizelos, the then Prime Minister of Greece.

The Balkan Wars marked an important juncture in modern Greek history that led to vast stretches of Northern Greece, as well as the island of Crete, being added to the modern Greek state – as a result Greece in fact nearly doubled in size.

The Greek army took control of the important Northern Greek city of Ioannina on 21 February 1913. Newbould did not live to see this moment — it was on a Greek mountainside near here, at the Battle of Manoliasa on 6 December 1912, that he died fighting against the Ottoman army. As part of the local centenary commemorative events in February 2013, a ceremony of memorial and commemoration was held in Manoliasa, a small village near Ioannina. Newbould’s memory was honoured alongside 260 Greek soldiers and volunteers who died in the battle. A new monument featuring the names of all those who died was unveiled, and all the names of the fallen were read out. The Cultural Association of Manoliasa is continuing to conduct research into his life and death.

He may not have the renown of Byron or Brooke, but Newbould led an extraordinary life and died a heroic death in the heat of battle. The following words could not be said of many (again quoting from The Evening Post): ‘Although he was only 40 years of age at the time of his death, he looked older, but that was because he had lived every year of his life in fighting for some cause in which he believed with his whole heart and soul.’ Similarly, Noel Buxton, M.P., was inspired in his book With the Bulgarian Staff (London, January 1913) to write the following dedication: ‘To the memory of Thomas Palmer Newbould, who counted the case of freedom of more value than life and died fighting for the Balkan Allies.’

When I get the chance, I’ll walk up the mountainside where the Battle of Manoliasa was fought —and remember that here is another corner of a foreign field where an Englishman died for the cause of Greek independence.