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 Left to Right 2nd Left Harley Newcombe Seated Left Peggy, Monica and Norah Newcombe |
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 Newcombe Home 1920's Mimbu Burma |
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 Charles Joseph McDermott Born Dublin Died 1930's Aged 89 |
 Harley & Nora Newcombe Strolling in Nice France 1940's |
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| Dr. Charles Frederick NEWCOMBE 1851-1924
Charles Frederick Newcombe [CFN] was born at Shield Field, in the parish of All Saints, Newcastle on Tyne, on Monday 15 September 851. He was the 8th of the 14 children of William Lister Newcombe (1817-1908) and his wife Eliza Jane (Rymer) (1816-1888). Both CFN’s parents were born in York. His father became the Traffic Manager of the Midland Railway, and was the Acting General Manager of the Railway from 1867 until 1870. CFN received his MB at the University of Aberdeen in 1873 and his MD in 1878. In 1879 he married Marian Arnold (1858-1891), daughter of Dr. Richard Arnold, surgeon major, Madras Army. Marian was born in India. Around that time he went into partnership with a physician at Windermere. Two years later he moved to Twickenham. In 1884 he emigrated to Hood River, Oregon, where he had an active general practice. In 1885 he moved to Victoria, British Columbia. Marian died there in childbirth in 1891, leaving two daughters and four sons. After her death, CFN took his 3 eldest children to England where he studied in the British Museum. He returned to Victoria but ceased to practice medicine after about 1894. CFN became very interested in the botany of North America. He had his own 18 foot open boat and later had a 24 foot fishing craft with a cabin. He made many trips to the Queen Charlotte Islands and became very interested in the Haida Indians. He began to collect their artifacts because he realized that these would be lost in the inevitable decay of their native culture. About 1897 Dr. George Dorsey, curator of the Field Museum at Chicago, asked him to collect Haida material for the Museum. CFN acquired many ‘totem poles’ and supplied, for example, the 34 foot pole at the Pitt-Rivers Museum in Oxford, and examples at the British Museum, Kew Gardens, Cambridge, Liverpool and Sydney, Australia. In 1904 he took 6 Vancouver Island Indians and their magician medicine man to the World Fair at St. Louis. They took a 40 foot canoe, a knocked-down Indian dwelling, totem poles and many other objects. The Indians demonstrated their typical crafts. CFN also did valuable research on the local mollusks and paleontology. In 1913 he led a Commission to study the effect of sea lions on the salmon industry. He also did historical research; in 1914 he published a report on the first circumnavigation of Vancouver Island. CFN died on 19 October 1924 after catching a chill on a sailing expedition. The obituary notice in Nature concluded: "To those who enjoyed Newcombe’s friendship it cannot but be regretted that such a many sided, humorous and charming personality has been lost to us without leaving an adequate memorial, [in the form of reports on his scientific studies]." The Library of the Provincial Archives of British Columbia has ten papers by CFN, only three of which refer to the culture of the Haida Indians. His scientific work was continued by his youngest surviving son, William Henry Arnold Newcombe (1884-1960). His obituary in "The Colonist" said: "Untutored, but self-taught, and with the consuming passion that was kindled by his father, he knew more about native Indian lore probably than any man in B.C. in the first half of the century." Sources: WLN’s 1878 notes in his Family Bible: Xerox copy of book now held
by S L Newcombe
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