Charles Evans Newbon lived to be one of the oldest members of the Newbon family – he died in 1929, aged 90. His wife, Florence Madeline Brockelbank, was also his first cousin, the daughter of his mother Ann’s younger brother George.

The only known memories of Charles Evans Newbon are those passed on by Geoffrey Newbon-Bennett to his daughter Mrs Aubrey Clench - Geoffrey was the grandson of Charles Evans Newbon’s first cousin Louisa (Henry Newbon’s eldest daughter). Aubrey says that her father, who grew up in Australia, was in England during World War I and while in hospital for a time during this period he contacted his great-aunt Minna Louisa Newbon (Henry Newbon's youngest daughter) to see if she might visit him. She declined, saying that she was too old to travel (even though she was to live a further 25 years or so after this!), and instead contacted her cousin Charles Evans Newbon, who on that occasion sent his son Herbert Alexander. Herbert was apparently impressed with his 3rd cousin and thereafter Geoffrey Newbon-Bennett made his home with Charles Evans Newbon’s family when he was on leave. Charles Evans Newbon apparently knew everyone who was ‘anyone’, including King George V. At the opening of Australia House in 1918 Geoffrey Newbon-Bennett was pointed out to the King and an invitation to breakfast at Buckingham Palace ensued, an event which Queen Mary and the Princess Royal also attended. Geoffrey Newbon-Bennett was apparently later the official spokesman when the Prince of Wales (later King Edward VIII) and Lord Louis Mountbatten visited Australia in the 1920s.



Early years
The 4th son of James Shelton Newbon and his wife Ann, Charles Evans Newbon’s middle name was the surname of his father’s then business partner John Llewellyn Evans. Although he was born in Blackfriars, Charles grew up first in Blackheath and thereafter in Hammersmith. As a boy he attended King’s College, London (which was then split into senior and junior departments, the former being a finishing school for young gentlemen and the latter the school that Charles attended and which in 1897 moved to Wimbledon). He then went on to study law at Trinity College, Cambridge University, matriculating in 1857, and graduating as a BA in 1861 and as a Master of Law in 1864.


Professional life
By entering the legal profession, Charles Evans Newbon was following in the footsteps of his father and elder  brother Thomas, but whereas they (along with Charles’s younger brother Joseph) were solicitors, Charles Evans Newbon became a barrister. He was admitted at the Inner Temple while still an undergraduate at Cambridge on April 27th 1859 and was called to the Bar on April 30th 1862. Thereafter he made a very successful career in London as a barrister on the South-Eastern Circuit, practising at 3 King’s Bench Walk. Among the holdings of the British Library is a French text which he translated into English, entitled The Law of France upon Partnership and Companies, as contained in the Code Napoléon, the Code de Commerce, and the law of the 24th July, 1867 (sur les Sociétés), together with the law of the 22nd January, 1868, upon the constitution of insurance companies.


Civic and other duties
Like his grandfather James Newbon, his younger brother Joseph and his cousin Charles Crickmer, Charles Evans Newbon represented the ward of Castle Baynard on the Common Council of the City of London. He was also Master of the Bakers’ Company in 1894.

For some time Charles Evans Newbon, perhaps slightly surprisingly, held the post of Chairman of the Milford Docks Company in South Wales. In fact the shipping industry had been the trade of his mother’s family (the Brockelbanks), and it is also worth remembering that Charles’s wife was also a Brockelbank and so he would have had a double connection with this distinguished family; his brother Henry George Newbon was a ship owner at Milford Haven. Three vessels were registered at Milford to Messrs Newbon and Brockelbank in the 1890s: the Commodore (1891–94), the Hypatia (1893–1894) and Westward Ho (1892–94) – this was most likely Henry George Newbon, although it may have been Charles Evans Newbon. There is a reference in The Times in 1892 to Mr C. E. Newbon being deputy chairman of the Milford Docks Company, and to Mr M. Brockelbank, secretary, may well have been a cousin and was presumably the same gentleman as the ship owner. More surprising, perhaps, is a reference to Charles Evans Newbon in The New York Times in 1902, which runs as follows:





















Later years
Charles Evans Newbon’s longevity is particularly noteworthy since none of his brothers lived beyond the age of 60. In addition, his father and grandfather died in their 50s and his great-grandfather in his 40s! The following obituary of Charles Evans Newbon appeared in the London newspaper the City Press on August 2nd 1929:











Florence Madeline Newbon died 5 years before her husband in 1924. After Joseph Newbon’s death in 1901, Charles Evans Newbon was for 28 years the sole surviving son of James Shelton Newbon. His only close relatives apart from his wife and eldest son, would then have been Joseph’s two children, Douglas and Muriel. It is not known, however, whether or not they were close to their uncle.


Family life
Charles and Florence had two sons, but only the elder, Herbert Alexander, lived to adulthood. Their younger son, Arthur Charles, died aged 18 of scarlet fever. Herbert became a successful barrister like his father and also practised at 3 King’s-Bench-Walk. He died unmarried in 1935, aged 77, at the Nightingale Nursing Home in Twickenham.


Charles Evans Newbon on the census