Rupert Norton Harding-Newman

Lieutenant Colonel

What this roll records

THIS ROLL CARRIED HIM TWICE, AND THE TWO RECORDS ARE NOW ONE. The second entry read "Newman, Rupert Harding", Captain, Royal Tank Regiment - the same name filed under N instead of H, which is the ordinary indexing fault with a double-barrelled surname. IT WAS NOT AN ERROR MADE HERE: the LRDGPS Trooper Album lists him under both letters, as "Harding-Newman, Rupert" (Lieutenant Colonel) and as "Newman, Rupert Harding" (Captain, R.T.R), and this roll reproduced both. The two ranks fit one career. Neither entry carried a service number and his is still not known. Source: LRDGPS Trooper Album, lrdg.org/trooper-album-h.html and lrdg.org/trooper-album-n.html, checked 4 September 2026.

WHAT HE DID. He was one of two Royal Tank Corps officers who went out with Bagnold’s pre-war desert parties, and in 1940 the only one in Cairo, serving as liaison officer with the then non-belligerent Egyptian Army. He went round the Cairo truck dealers with Bagnold to find vehicles for the new unit, persuaded the Egyptian Army to part with nineteen more, and drew up the modification specifications with him. Source: Long Range Desert Group Preservation Society, lrdg.org/the-lrdg.html and "Bagnold’s Bluff".

TWO PHOTOGRAPHS, AND A DOUBT THAT IS NOT HIDDEN. Each of the two entries merged above carried its own picture, and they are different photographs of what may not be the same face. Both are shown here rather than one being chosen: the portrait came from the "Harding-Newman" entry, the second picture from the "Newman, Rupert Harding" entry. NEITHER IS CONFIRMED. Identification of the second would be welcome.

HIS FULL NAME, from the Imperial War Museums Sound Archive. This card gave him as “Rupert Harding-Newman”; IWM catalogue his oral history under “Rupert Norton Harding-Newman”, catalogue 834, and took the name from the man himself. Source: Imperial War Museums, iwm.org.uk, checked 5 September 2026.

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Not By Strength But By Guile