Surveyors of Lloyd's Register's Past: Newman Mumford

Newman Mumford 

18/08/1861- 28/06/1942 

Date of Birth: 18/08/1861. 

Place of Birth: Church Street, Hugh Town, Isles of Scilly. 

Place of Death: 876 Leslie Drive, Saanich, Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. 

Lloyd’s Register Surveyor to: Singapore (N.E., 1893-5); Hong Kong (05/1896 - 05/1905); Istanbul (05/1905 - 12/1914; 01/1919 - 06/1921); Piraeus, Greece (12/1914 - 08/1918). 

Figure 1 - LR staff record for Newman Mumford

The earliest record of Newman Mumford is the 1871 Census, which shows that he spent his early years growing up on Church Street, Hugh Town, with his mother Annie, his Father Clement, and his younger sister Augusta. Both of his parents had lived their entire lives on the island, where his father was a schoolmaster and later a registrar of births and deaths as well as a clerk to the justices. Several older siblings had, by this point, moved on with their own lives. 1

At the age of 14, Newman’s life took a very different path from his parents, as he not only left St Mary’s, but the Isles of Scilly too, as he apprenticed as a marine engineer in Newcastle at the Wallsend Slipway and Engineering Company. 2 This is where we find him in the 1881 Census – age 19, listed as an Engineer and lodging with the Morley family at 77 Howard Street, Tynemouth. 3 Visiting at the time was Newman’s older brother, Charles N. Mumford, who was working as a Master Mariner and was seemingly based in South Shields. 4 Perhaps Newman was following in his brother’s footsteps by training for a maritime career in the North East of England.

Newman later spent some years working at sea on P&O ships, as well as on a shipping line between New York and the West Indies, where he became a Chief Engineer at the age of 23. 5 One of the ships that he worked on seems to have been the Valetta, a hybrid steam and sail ship that was built in 1883 by Caird & Company in Greenock, Scotland and owned by P&O. 6The ship was also surveyed several times by LR. 7 It is likely that Newman Mumford was onboard for the ship’s maiden voyage to Australia early in 1884, as the The Cornish Telegraph newspaper reported on the Scillonian’s success.8

Figure 2 - Valetta (1883). Available here: https://collections.slsa.sa.gov.au/resource/PRG+280/1/2/249

During these years, Newman’s training developed into the expertise in maritime engineering which would later see him hired as a Lloyd’s Register Surveyor. Already no stranger to international travel and working beyond the British coast, he later left this life at sea to work at a sugar mill in Singapore, where the next big chapter of his life began. 9

Singapore was a place of firsts for Newman Mumford. He married Janie Gibson Sherris, also from the Isles of Scilly, and they had their first child there, Joyce, who was born in 1895. 10 In 1893 however, one of the LR surveyors in Singapore died and Newman Mumford was hired as a non-exclusive surveyor. He may not have known it, but this was the start of a 25 year long career with LR that would see him work all over the world. Lloyd’s Register’s General Committee Minutes for 1895-6, which are records of the meetings of the governing General Committee (GC) where they discussed everything regarding the operations of the organisation, noted that Newman had applied for the position of Exclusive Surveyor to Rio de Janeiro. 11 This went favourably for him and he was to be appointed surveyor there until the untimely death of Andrew Johnston, the surveyor for Hong Kong, caused the GC to instead appoint Newman to Hong Kong instead. 12 He did have to interview for a second time though! He was given an initial salary of £600 annually and took up his position on 30 May 1896, which the Bank of England’s inflation calculator estimates to be worth around £67,722 in December 2024. Lloyd's Register Foundation Heritage Centre, Woolwich, London, “Staff Bible”, Entry for “Newman Mumford”, 379; Bank of England Inflation Calculator is here. Please note that this is not an exact assessment of how far that money would go, it is simply a useful tool that can be used to obtain a rough understanding of the spending power Newman Mumford had in a present day context.

During this time, he worked on a number of ships, including a number under construction or needing repair. He also sought to improve the shipbuilding industry within China. In a speech on the maiden voyage of the Kwongchow in 1902, owned by the Shiu On Steamship Company and built by Bailey and Murphy in Hong Kong, he recognised China’s long shipbuilding history and stated that Hong Kong and the banks of the Pearl River would become akin to the formidable shipbuilding industries of Belfast and the River Clyde.13 The way to get to this point, he believed, was to focus on taking advantage of the raw materials needed for shipbuilding already present in China. Writing into the editor of the Overland China Mail newspaper, he believed that the importation of materials, particularly steel, hindered the development of shipbuilding despite the abundance of the necessary resources in China and called for steel works to be established within China instead. 14

Perhaps the highlight of his entire professional career took place here in Hong Kong, when he supervised the repair and rescue of the battered and stranded steamer Pembrokeshire in 1903. 15 With holes in her hull “almost large enough to accommodate a launch”, the Pembrokeshire was thought “impossible to float”, but under Mumford’s direction, she was patched up with planks and cement and successfully sailed the four-day journey to Hong Kong.16 An incredible “Feat of Marine Engineering”, according to the Cornishman newspaper, who wrote proudly of the Scillonian Mumford’s achievement. 17

While in Hong Kong, Newman’s son, Patrick Foster was born in 1897 back in St Marys, Isles of Scilly. 18 For most of his career, it seems that Janie stayed with Newman as much as possible, but their children were raised at times back at home instead of in Hong Kong. 19 Newman also integrated himself well into Hong Kong society. He joined a Hong Kong branch of the Freemasons, which met at Zetland Hall.20 He became members of the Hong Kong Odd Volumes Society and the Institute of Engineers and Shipbuilders, where, for a time, he took on the positions of Treasurer and President respectively. 21 He was a member of the prestigious gentleman’s club, the Hong Kong Club, and also attended dances and balls, such as the 1904 Engineer’s Ball of which he was on the decoration and invitation committees.22 It was not all fun and games however, as the OCM reported in May 1900, as on 21 May when Newman Mumford went to Aberdeen (Hong Kong) to survey a ship, his clerk found the LR office at 13 Beaconsfield Arcade to have been broken into and ransacked by burglars. 23 The burglars were likely disturbed during their misadventures, as they had left many goods behind, but Mumford believed that they had taken at least “two new felt hats, a clock, an umbrella” and some other office supplies. This was supposedly the third time this office had been burgled. 24

In April 1905, a farewell dinner was held for Newman Mumford as his large circle of friends bid him farewell as he was set to depart for Istanbul the following month. Mumford was reportedly “visibly touched”, and felt that his friends had been “a little blind” to his faults, and to his “virtues very kind”. 25 The GC minutes for 1904-5 reveal that he had written to LR to request the Surveyorship at Marseilles, as he felt that his health necessitated his move away from Hong Kong. 26 The GC noted his long service, and agreed to his request to leave Hong Kong, appointing him to Istanbul, capital of the Ottoman Empire, instead. 27 He would be replaced by a fellow member of the Institute of Engineers and Shipbuilders, John Lambert. 28

Newman and Janie Mumford would stay in Istanbul for another 9 years, achieving promotion in 1911 to become a Senior Surveyor. 29 Newman was also a cricketer, willing to travel significant distances to celebrate the game. While appointed to Istanbul, he travelled back to London in 1908 to attend the Lloyd’s Register Cricket Club’s annual reunion, joining other employees and guests from across the world, including his Hong Kong replacement, John Lambert. 30 At the reunion, when given the opportunity to make a speech, Lloyd’s List reported that Mumford compared Hong Kong favourably to Istanbul, praising Hong Kong’s facilities as “some of the finest docks in the world” in contrast to Istanbul, where such facilities were apparently lacking. 31 Sadly though, while Mumford got his moment in the limelight, he was not recognised for his cricketing prowess at the reunion.

Newman’s next posting as a LR was at Piraeus in Greece, a position that he took up in December 1914.32 It is very likely that this arrangement was due to the outbreak of the First World War as the Ottoman Empire was on opposing sides to the United Kingdom during the conflict. He stayed in position here until just before the war ended, leaving in August 1918 seemingly to offer his expertise to the Admiralty at Alexandria, Egypt between October 1918 and January 1919. 33 At this point, Newman Mumford was a veteran surveyor and his reputation and expertise were clearly being recognised, as he was also appointed as Acting Principal Surveyor for Egypt.34 With the First World War coming to a close, he returned to Istanbul in January 1919, where he would remain until his retirement as a LR surveyor on 30 June 1921.35 He was also paid £1000 by LR “in respect of his losses” when he was likely forced to leave Istanbul at the outbreak of war. 36

Newman Mumford fully retired from work in 1927, settling down finally in North Saanich, Vancouver Island, in British Columbia, Canada with an annual pension of £640.37 Passenger logs from the President Taft in 1939 potentially show that the couple had continued travelling in retirement, potentially holidaying to Honolulu, Hawaii.38 Mostly though, it seems that he spent his time fishing, sailing and researching the battlefields of the Napoleonic and U.S. Civil wars. 39 He had a worldwide circle of friends, including Sir James Owen (1869-1939), a director of Reuters, and his son, Patrick Foster who became an electrical engineer, moved to Vancouver with him. 40 Sadly, his daughter Joyce is difficult to track through the historical record and her life story is unclear. Janie died aged 76 on 18 March 1942 in Saanich. 41 Newman died only a few months later on 28 June 1942, aged 81, at home at Leslie Drive, Saanich, having lived in the area for 22 years according to his obituary in the Times Colonist. 42 Newman was survived by his son, Patrick Foster, and sister, Augusta, who was living in Bognor Regis, England. 43 The Probate Calendar indicates that he left behind effects worth £2189 in England alone, so it seems likely that his and Janie’s retirement was a comfortable one. 44

Figure 3 - Places Newman Mumford Lived and Worked.

Key:

Green = Lived

Red = Worked

1 – Hugh Town, St Mary’s, Isles of Scilly

2 – Tynemouth, Tyne and Wear, England

3 – Singapore

4 – Hong Kong, China

5 – Istanbul, Türkiye

6 – Piraeus, Greece

7 – Saanich, Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada