1. Introduction

CECIL Newman was born in Lisburn in 1914, the son of a RIC policeman (Royal Irish Cnstabulary) 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. In 1931 he was awarded the ‘Scout of the Year’ cup and in 1935 went on to become Cubmaster. In the same year, Cecil led a group to a jamboree on the Swedish Island of Ingarö. He kept a travel log on the trip, from which excerpts are published in Andrew Totten’s book The Tenth: A Century of Scouting at the 10th Belfast. These document the group’s progress through the Kiel Canal in Germany to the Baltic Sea and describe some of the people they met along the way. They included groups of young Nazis and Deutscher Pfadfinderbund (the German Scout Federation). Cecil was told that anyone caught photographing the canal would have his camera confiscated. However, he also refers to a young Austrian boy who was keen to have his portrait taken, a copy of which has been attached to a page in the log. Someone has later added “became S.S. killed aged 18 at Dunkirk”. In 1936 and again in 1938, Cecil went skiing and climbing in Tirol but by this time his friend had joined the Hitler Youth. Cecil was now a part-time engineering student and had joined Queen’s University Officers Corps. His experiences in Germany were probably a factor in Cecil’s decision to enlist as a Royal Engineer in 1940. By the end of the Second World War he had achieved the rank of Major. Cecil remained in Berlin for two more years where he helped to instigate the processes of reconstruction and the re-establishment of the water supply. Just as Cecil had been conscious of the atmosphere that had existed in Germany before the war, he was also acutely aware of the human and structural cost of the aftermath. Some of the photographs he took in Berlin were later given to the Stadtmuseum, Berlin (Berlin City Museum).

On his return to Belfast, Cecil returned to his job, which he had started shortly before enlisting, with the surveyors’ department at Belfast City Council. His work with the Royal Engineers, and in

1.1 Young Cecil with his group of scouts. Cecil is on the 2nd row from the back, far right. Karen Logan’s great uncle, Robert Clemitson, is in the same row, 6th from left. (Photo: 10th Belfast Scouts) (47-01-02-95) 1.2 Homecoming to Berlin, 1945. This is perhaps the most poignant photograph in the Newman collection – it shows a lone wounded soldier making his way through a ravaged street in the centre of Berlin. (N-950)

the reconstruction of Berlin, was useful experience for his career in town planning. He qualified as a planning officer in 1957, subsequently joined the Northern Ireland Civil Service and became a Superintendent Planning Officer in the Ministry of Development. As a result, Cecil became closely involved with high profile planning policies and publications, including the Matthew Plan. This was a regional development plan for Belfast published in 1963. 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. A former colleague, Ernie Cromie, described him as “one of the old school”, and a conservationist rather than a mere protectionist. 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 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 landscape and townscape changes. At that time, town planning was still in its infancy in Northern Ireland, despite major developments

1.3, 1.4 Two aerial photographs taken by Cecil Newman: Divis flats, 1980 and Belfast City Centre. Note how meticulous Cecil was in annotating and then checking and correcting his photographs. (N-952 and N-951)

1.6 Slievenaman Valley, in the Mournes, where the Newman family often stayed. (N-112) taking place. Quarries, for instance, were being established faster than the Ordnance Survey could produce field sheets, leaving planners with limited resources with which to work. Cecil’s aerial photographs did much to inform the development of the policy for the control of quarry development throughout the province. In 1973, the value of his contribution was acknowledged when he was awarded the OBE.

Cecil had married Mollie Baird in 1942. At first the family lived in a war-requisitioned flat 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 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 was Secretary of the Mournes Advisory Council and championed the designation of the Mournes as a National Park, an issue that is still the subject of debate today. 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 urban and rural landscape is evident from the photographs now in the Down County Museum and National Museums Northern Ireland collections. Those selected to illustrate this book represent his wide-ranging interests in the Mournes, from archaeological sites to modern buildings, and rubbish dumps to mountain climbing. What makes the collection unique, especially for its time, is that Cecil was meticulous in his record keeping – most of his photographs have a title, date, map reference and information about the camera settings used when the picture was taken. Using high quality equipment, Cecil enjoyed the technical challenge of producing good results. The quality of the images, together with the detailed information associated with each one, makes this an invaluable resource for future research.

Warmly described by friends and colleagues as a patient and resourceful man who inspired tremendous loyalty, Cecil Newman used his expertise and experience to great effect to produce what Professor Ronald Buchanan has called “a unique view of Northern Ireland in the mid-twentieth century”.

Karen Logan

July 2013

1.9 Memorial at Trassey. Note Cecil’s date of birth was erroneously inscribed as 1917

2.1 Mourne Mountains, 8.64

This photograph shows the range from (N-097)