Anne Newman-Newman: A Naval Widow and Fareham Benefactor

Anne Newman-Newman’s story connects several of the people commemorated at St Peter & St Paul, Fareham.

Born Anne Brace in 1772, she was the sister of the naval officer Edward Brace, who later became Vice-Admiral Sir Edward Brace KCB and lived at Catisfield Lodge. She married Captain James Newman-Newman of the Royal Navy in 1798.

Her husband had already begun a distinguished naval career. He had fought at the Glorious First of June in 1794 and later commanded a succession of Royal Navy vessels. By 1811 he was captain of HMS Hero, a 74-gun ship of the line.

On Christmas Eve 1811, disaster struck. Hero was returning from the Baltic as part of a convoy when severe weather drove her onto the Haak Sands near the Dutch island of Texel. The ship was wrecked and virtually everyone aboard was lost. Other Royal Navy and merchant vessels were also wrecked during the same storm, making it one of the worst British naval disasters of the period. James Newman-Newman’s memorial remains on the wall of St Peter & St Paul.

Anne was therefore left a widow while still in her thirties. She never remarried and remained closely connected with Catisfield and Fareham.

Her own story is remembered particularly through her generosity. She supported Price’s Charity, the Fareham charity established by timber merchant William Price in 1721 to provide education for poor children of the parish. Price’s original school educated thirty poor boys and girls free of charge and was closely connected with the parish church. The charity continued to grow through later benefactions.

Anne became one of those later benefactors, helping to continue a charitable tradition which still survives today through the William Price Charitable Trust. The modern trust continues to support the education of young people living within Fareham’s town parishes.

Her will also shows how strongly she remained attached to St Peter & St Paul. She asked to be buried inside the church, beneath her pew, and gave detailed instructions for her funeral, including that eight local tradesmen or farmers should carry her coffin and each receive £5 for doing so. Parish research records that request, although whether the burial beneath her pew actually took place still requires confirmation.

Anne died in 1840.

Her life brings together several strands of Fareham’s history: the Brace naval family of Catisfield, the loss of HMS Hero, the parish church and the long history of Price’s Charity. She is remembered both as the widow of a naval officer lost in one of the great maritime disasters of the Napoleonic era and as a benefactor who invested in the lives of future generations of Fareham children.