Cecil F S Newman was born in Lisburn in 1914, the son of a RIC policeman (Royal Irish Constabulary) whose family had come from a farming background in West Cork. He grew up in Sydenham, Belfast; as a young man he enjoyed hiking and youth hostelling and was an active member of the 10th Belfast Scout group.
As a part-time engineering student, Cecil joined the Queen's University Officers Corps. He later decided to enlist as a Royal Engineer in 1940. By the end of the Second World War he had achieved the rank of Major. Cecil then worked in Berlin for two years where he helped with the process of reconstruction and the re-establishment of the water supply.
When Cecil returned home to Northern Ireland, he went back to his job, which he had started shortly before enlisting, with the surveyors' department at Belfast City Council. He qualified as a planning officer in 1957, and subsequently joined the Northern Ireland Civil Service and became a Superintendent Planning Officer in the Ministry of Development. He was the author of the first Newry Area Plan as well as the Mourne Study and provided photographs to illustrate both publications. Cecil was interested in rural as well as urban development and was a leading member of the Ulster Society for the Preservation of the Countryside, the oldest voluntary conservation body in Northern Ireland.
During the 1970s Cecil concentrated particularly on aerial photography. He was able to use his army connections to travel as a passenger on training flights over Northern Ireland in Sioux helicopters - an opportunity not afforded to many. This was a great asset to him in professional terms as a means of monitoring the landscape and townscape changes. Cecil's aerial photographs did much to inform the development of the policy of the control of quarry development throughout the province. In 1973, the value of his contribution was acknowledged when he was awarded the OBE.
Cecil married Mollie Baird in 1942. At first they lived on the Lisburn Road, but in 1962 he, Mollie and their three children, Pat, John and Michael, moved to 12 Station Road in Sydenham, a house that had previously belonged to Gustav Wolff of Harland and Wolff. Cecil's keen interest in the countryside wasn't limited to his professional life. The family enjoyed walking in the Mournes where they had a holiday cottage at the head of the Slievenaman Valley. Indeed, Cecil helped to establish several youth hostels in this area.
Although he retired from public service in 1976, Cecil remained very involved in community and development issues through organisations such as the Ulster Society for the Preservation of the Countryside. He gave talks about areas of Northern Ireland illustrated with his photographs and slides and continued to take photographs until a year before his death, in 1984. In 1987, the Ulster Society for the Preservation of the Countryside erected a memorial in his honour at Trassey car park in the Mourne Mountains. The plaque on a large granite boulder reads 'Friend of Mourne' - a fitting tribute to his legacy.
A keen photographer from an early age, Cecil had been an Associate of the Royal Photographic Society since the 1940s. His interest in the rapidly changing landscape is evident from the photographs now in the Down County Museum and National Museums Northern Ireland collections. The quality of the images, together with the detailed information Cecil associated with each one, makes this an invaluable resource for future research.
A selection of Cecil Newman's photographs were published in the 2013 edition of the Down Survey. The publication entitled, ‘Two Men of Mourne: Photographs by Pat Hudson and Cecil Newman', is available from the Museum for only £8.
Some of Cecil Newman's photographs are now also available to view online.
If you would like further information about the Cecil Newman collection, please contact the Museum on +44 (0)330 137 4049 or email museums@nmandd.org.
