This pristine art deco gravestone proudly boasts the achievements of Thomas Charles Newman, Alderman and Mayor of Swindon in 1923.

Mr Newman served on the council for 32 years and during his Mayoral year welcomed King George V and Queen Mary on their first visit to Swindon.

Other less glamorous duties he performed that same year including opening the sewage works at Rodbourne and the hard tennis courts at Town Gardens.

Thomas Charles Newman was born in Swindon in 1878 and was educated at Sanford Street Schools.

He began his career in the printing trade as a printer’s devil (an apprentice who runs errands in a printing office) and went on to become a master printer and proprietor of the Borough Press Ltd.

He was chairman of the committee in charge of the new Civic Offices built close to his old home in Euclid Street and he had many interests outside of politics. He was involved with Swindon Town Football Club and the Wiltshire Football Association along with many other local organisations. He enjoyed gardening, singing and various sports, in particular angling.

Thomas Charles Newman died on October 14, 1941 and an obituary published in the Advertiser described him as an extremely popular and generous man who assisted in every way the town’s many causes, and took a special interest in housing and unemployment questions.

His funeral took place at Sanford Street Congregational Church on Saturday, October 18. A prominent freemason, Masonic honours were accorded at his funeral and 60 Freemasons headed the funeral cortege from Sanford Street up here to Radnor Street Cemetery.

Thomas was buried with his daughter Sybil who had died ten years previously aged 15. They were later joined by his wife Frederica who died in 1963, their son Leslie who died in 1989 and his wife Doris who died in 1983. The last member of the family to be buried here was grandson John Charles Newman who died in 2005.