Charles Louis Marie William Norris-Newman (22 August 1852 – May 1920) was a British journalist, adventurer and intelligence officer with the Russian Navy. He was present at the 1870–1871 Siege of Paris and was in Spain during the Third Carlist War (from 1872) and in Egypt with General Charles George Gordon. Norris-Newman was in Southern Africa from 1877 and was the only newspaper correspondent with the British forces during the invasion of Zululand in 1879, reporting for The Standard. He was present at the Action at Sihayo's Kraal, narrowly avoided the massacre of the British at the Battle of Isandlwana and was among the first group to ride into Rorke's Drift after the battle. Norris-Newman took up arms in the Battle of Gingindlovu, was the first to ride into the besieged settlement of Eshowe and was present at the final action, the Battle of Ulundi. He remained in the area after the war and covered the brief First Boer War of 1880-1881, though he was too late to witness any fighting. He afterwards joined Digby Willoughby in Basutoland and Madagascar. In 1885 he was town clerk and treasurer to the municipality of Aliwal North in Cape Colony but was dismissed for embezzlement. Norris-Newman afterwards reported on military campaigns in Central Africa. By the mid-1890s he was with the British South Africa Company in their campaign to take over Matabeleland. He published two newspapers, worked for Reuters and managed a messenger company. He worked for the company as an intelligence officer and colonial official in the Second Matabele War of 1896–1897. Norris-Newman afterwards spent time in East Asia and in 1900, having fled creditors in China, married a former prostitute in Japan. His wife's former occupation excluded Norris-Newman from polite society. Norris-Newman was abusive to his wife and child, who died young, and she divorced him in 1908. From 1902 Norris-Newman worked for the Imperial Russian Navy first as an English teacher and then in publishing a journal in the Far East, eventually being granted the rank of lieutenant-colonel. He was accused by George Ernest Morrison, political adviser to the Chinese Republic, of propaganda against the Japanese during the 1904–1905 Russo-Japanese War. In later life he worked for newspapers in China. Early life and career Norris-Newman was born on 22 August 1852 at Elvington Hall, Yorkshire, England. He was the son of C. Sherwood Newman and the Countess de Rosa Y