The Claude J. Brewster Post No. 25 was formed on July 17, 1919 and officially named on September 18, 1919. The Post was named after Private Claude J. Brewster, the first Newport man to die in France. He enlisted in Company M, 1st NH Infantry in 1914, and served in Mexico during the US conflict with Francisco “Pancho” Villa. In 1917 Newport’s Company M was mobilized and transferred to Company M, 103rd Infantry, 26th Division and sent to France in October of that year to serve in the American Expeditionary Forces. Pvt. Brewster was killed by a shot in the heart on June 20, 1918 in the front line trench in Xivray on the bank of the Rupt-de-Mad.
