Newcombe was born in
Newcastle upon Tyne, England, as the eighth of fourteen children. His parents were William Lister Newcombe (1817–1908) and Eliza Jane (Rymer) (1816–1888), who were both from
Yorkshire. In 1889, he moved back to Victoria and worked at the "Insane Asylum" in
New Westminster. His wife Marian died after the birth of their sixth child in 1891, leaving him with two daughters and four sons. With his eldest three children, he returned to England and participated in
geological and
natural history studies at the British Museum and the
University of London. He ceased to practice medicine after 1894. Newcombe began to study the botany of North America and made many trips to
Haida Gwaii (formerly the Queen Charlotte Islands) by boat. In the process he became very interested in the
Haida and started to collect their artifacts to "preserve" them from, what was then thought to be, the impending demise of the native culture. Newcombe acquired many
totem poles for the
Royal British Columbia Museum, the
Pitt Rivers Museum in
Oxford, the
British Museum,
Kew Gardens, and museums in
Cambridge, Liverpool and Sydney. Between 1897 and 1924, he bought at least 67 totem poles, over thirty of which were Haida. ==See also==