John Verdun Newton

John Verdun Newton
Jack Newton in London, December 1943
Member of the Western Australian Legislative Assembly for Greenough
In office 20 November 1943 – 14 January 1944
Preceded by	William Patrick junior
Succeeded by	David Brand
Personal details
Born	12 April 1916[1] Dongara, Western Australia
Died	14 January 1944 (aged 27)[1][2] Warmeloh, Germany
Political party	Australian Labor Party
Military service
Allegiance	Australia
Service/branch	Royal Australian Air Force
Years of service	1941–1944
Rank	Flight Lieutenant
Battles/wars	Second World War

John Verdun (Jack) Newton (12 April 1916 – 14 January 1944) was elected to the Parliament of Western Australia, while serving as a Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) pilot in Europe, during World War II. Newton won the seat of Greenough at the 1943 State election, but was killed in action 55 days later.^[1][3]

While many other members of Australian parliaments (MPs) have simultaneously served in wars, Newton's tenure was unusual, because he was:

• both preselected and elected while he was overseas;^{[3] [4]}
• one of only a few serving members of Australian parliaments to fly on combat operations;^{[n 1] [5]}
• neither sworn in nor able to sit in Parliament, and;^{[1] [6]}
• killed in action while he was a MP.

Civilian life and political career

I want to thank you for having elected me your Parliamentary representative and for the high compliment you paid me. It is indeed a great honor [sic] you have conferred on me, and I hope I shall not disappoint you. The fact that you have elected me during my absence from the country fills me with gratitude and pride and I assure you I shall do my best to be worthy of your confidence.
* * *
But first ... I wish to complete the job I came here to do, and I know that you would like me to do that job well.
* * *
Happy Christmas, and victory and peace in the new year.

—Flt Lt John Newton, MLA for Greenough;
Calling Australian Towns, BBC Overseas Service, 1943.^[7]

Jack Newton was the son of Mary Elizabeth Newton (neé Doyle), and Edward Henry Newton, who had moved from Victoria to become farmers at Mingenew.^{[n 2][8][9]}

As World War II broke out, Newton and his three brothers were working as sharefarmers, growing wheat.^[4][8][9] He was a member of the Wheat and Woolgrowers' Union (an association of small-scale farmers aligned to the political left) and had reportedly also worked as a shearer and a member of the Australian Workers' Union.^[3][10]

When a State election was announced for 20 November 1943, Newton was pre-selected as the Australian Labor Party (ALP) candidate for the seat of Greenough in the Legislative Assembly (lower house). He reportedly made his formal nomination by cable from London.^[3] Newton was elected with 52.81% (1,944 of 3,733 votes cast) of the first preferences,^[11] defeating the incumbent, William Patrick junior of the Country Party. Greenough became one of two seats in the lower house gained by the ALP as it retained government.^[6]

Towards the end of 1943, Newton took part in a BBC Radio BBC Radio Overseas Service program Calling Australian Towns, giving a speech that he styled as an address to his constituents in Greenough.^[7]

Newton was officially listed as "missing in action" following a mission on the evening of 14 January 1944.

On 27 September 1945, the seat of Greenough was officially declared vacant.^[12] A by-election was held on 27 October 1945. The Labor candidate was Jack Newton's brother, Cecil Newton, who was defeated by the Liberal nominee, David Brand.^[12][13] (A veteran of the North African and Greek campaigns with the Australian Army, Brand later became Premier and retained Greenough until his retirement from politics in 1975.)

It was not unusual at the time for legislators to enter military service. In some Commonwealth parliaments that followed the Westminster system, there was a convention that if a Member of Parliament (MP) enlisted during wartime, they would be assigned a "pair": the party opposite would voluntarily withdraw one member from voting in parliament.^[14] And some other legislators had, like Newton, been elected while on active service.^{[n 3]}

Few serving members of Australian parliaments have flown on combat operations. There may be only one other example: Thomas White was an RAAF staff officer in Europe during World War II, whilst continuing to represent a federal electorate in Victoria. According to the Australian Parliamentary Library, White "surreptitiously flew on several sorties as a second-pilot" (see ^{[n 1]}).

Many other members of the Western Australian Parliament have died in office, and one other MP has been killed in action: Bart Stubbs (ALP; Subiaco) died during World War I, while serving with the Australian Army in Belgium. However, Jack Newton's case is extremely unusual because he was killed in action before he could take part in a parliamentary sitting.^{[n 4]}

War service 1941–44

In 1941, Newton was called up and enlisted in the Citizen Air Force (as the RAAF reserve was known at the time) on 17 August, with the service number 415270.^[1][4] After training as a pilot at No. 9 Elementary Flying Training School (at RAAF Cunderdin) and No. 4 Service Flying Training School (RAAF Geraldton), Newton was awarded pilot's "wings" on 15 May 1942.^[4]

At the time, the Australian Defence Act prevented the posting of reservists and conscripts to units outside Australian territory South West Pacific theatre. Newton, however, volunteered for frontline service in British Royal Air Force (RAF) formations, under the Empire Air Training Scheme and was re-enlisted in the Permanent Air Force.^[4]

He was posted to the United Kingdom for operational training with RAF Bomber Command. For several months, Newton trained for night bombing with four-engined heavy bombers at No. 11 OTU (RAF Oakley, Buckinghamshire).^[4]

In late October 1943, Newton was promoted to Flight Lieutenant and posted to No. 90 Squadron RAF, at RAF Tuddenham in Suffolk.^[1][4][5] He captained Short Stirlings during raids on Germany, including raids on Kassel, Frankfurt and Bremen.^[3] His commanding officer at 90 Sqn, Wing Commander J. H. Giles, described Newton as: "An above average Officer who is an excellent leader of men."^[4]

In a newspaper interview published in early November 1943, Newton mentioned that the other members of his original crew had been killed, while flying with another pilot.^[15] (This appears to have occurred while Newton was hospitalised due to illness.^[4]) He added that he expected to complete a tour (usually 30 sorties) "by Christmas", suggesting that he was flying on three or four operations per week.

During November, Newton was transferred to No. 7 Squadron RAF, an Avro Lancaster Pathfinder unit, at RAF Oakington in Cambridgeshire,^[4] where he served until his death.

Killed in action, 1944

On 14 January 1944, Newton was the captain of a Lancaster B.III, JA905 (squadron code "MG-V"),^{[n 5]} which took off from Oakington at 16:53, to mark targets around Braunschweig (Brunswick), in Lower Saxony.^[16] The other crew members were RAF personnel: Flt Lt H. O. Wharmby (second pilot); Sgt W. H. Holmes (flight engineer); F/O A. R. Broadbent (navigator); Flt Sgt D. V. Bunting (bomb aimer); Sgt S. W. Bury (wireless operator/air gunner); P/O F. W. Harding (mid-upper gunner) and; F/O J. N. (Nigel) Richards (rear gunner).^[16][17][18] Nigel Richards was, reportedly, an inspiration for the main character of Cyril Connolly's novel The Rock Pool (1936).^[18]

The raid was the Allies' first major bombing operation against Braunschweig; it was intended that 498 aircraft from Bomber Command would attack targets that included two Messerschmitt aircraft factories.^[19] As a relatively direct route was chosen, the pathfinders were detected by German radar at an early stage of the evening.^[19] Under a new tactical system known as Zahme Sau ("Tame Sow"), night fighters were directed at the bombers by Luftgau-Kommando XI (LgK XI; "Air District Command 11") in Hanover.^[19][20] "The raid", according to historian Martin Middlebrook, "was a minor disaster".^[19] A total of 38 Lancasters were lost, including 11 pathfinders – a fact which prevented accurate targeting, and as a result no damage was done to the primary targets.^[19]

A Lancaster B.III similar to JA905 "MG-V"

JA905 was one of the aircraft that did not return and its entire crew was reported missing.^[16] Following the war, the RAF established that JA905 and another Lancaster B.III from 7 Squadron (JA935; "MG-O"), had both crashed north-west of Braunschweig.^[16] The wreckage of both Lancasters experienced massive explosions and/or fires, which prevented positive identification of either the aircraft or the remains of their crews.^[16]

Later research has suggested that JA905 was attacked over Schwarmstedt by more than one fighter,^[20] which most likely belonged to a locally-based nightfighter unit, NJG 3 – although NJG 2 also claimed four-engined bombers in the same area that evening.^[21] The bomber was reportedly damaged several times by the fighters and caught fire; it then "lost height and completed a 180 degree turn", before the pilot/s apparently attempted a crash landing in a field.^[20] JA905 – evidently still carrying a full bomb load – descended too rapidly, to make a controlled landing.^[20] At about 19:00 the bomber exploded violently as it hit the ground – in a field just inside the town limits of Warmeloh, but nearer to the village of Hope,^[2][16][20] about four miles (6.5 km) south of Schwarmstedt. According to Ilsemann: "Most of the roofs and windows in the village of Hope were damaged by the blast".^{[20][n 6]}

The crew was of JA905 was initially buried, along with the wreckage, in the crater caused by the explosion.^[20] Following the end of the war, the Commonwealth War Graves Commission exhumed and reinterred their remains at its Hannover War Cemetery.^[5][16]

Footnotes

Notes

1. "Thomas White (MHR, Balaclava, 1929–51; NAT/UAP/LIB), a veteran of World War I, joined the RAAF. He commanded a flying school and then in England filled senior administrative and training posts, and surreptitiously flew on several sorties as a second-pilot, before his discharge in 1944..." (Parliamentary Library [Australia], 2006–07, Commonwealth Members of Parliament who have served in war, pp. 9-10.)
2. Some sources give Mary Newton's maiden name as "Dingle", although official sources state that it was Doyle. (Marriage registration no. 6035, 1910, State of Victoria.)
3. For example, Jack Seely was elected to the UK Parliament while serving with the British Army in the Boer War. Seely also retained a seat while he was at the front, during the First World War.
4. For example, while the UK's youngest MP at the time was also killed in action during 1944, the 25-year-old G. C. Gray had taken part in several sittings.
5. JA905 was one of a batch of 550 Lancasters ordered from Avro (Chadderton) in late 1941 and delivered, as a B.III variant, with Rolls Royce Merlin 38 engines. JA905 was delivered to No. 7 Squadron RAF in July 1943. It initially had the squadron code "MG-K", with which it took part in raids against Berlin (3/4 September 1943); Hanover (18/19 October 1943); Berlin (23/24 November, 26/27 November and 2/3 December 1943). JA905 was redesignated "MG-V" for its six and final sortie. It had flown a total of about 221 hours when it was lost on the evening of 14 January 1944. (Source: lostaircraft.com, 2012 Database LA Number: 3289 [21 August 2015.
6. The crash site is half a mile (800 metres) west of Hope, 800 feet (250 metres) north of the road from Vesbeck to Hope. (Aviation Research Neustadt, n.d. Warmeloh, op. cit..)

Citations

1. World War Two Nominal Roll, 2002, Newton, John Verdun (2 November 2014).
2. Aviation Research Neustadt, 2013?, Crashed allied a/c in Braunschweig (2 November 2014).
3. The West Australian, 8 November 1943, p. 2.
4. Royal Australian Air Force, 1941–,Newton John Verdun: Service Number – 415270. Available from: National Archives of Australia. (2 November 2014).
5. Government of Australia, 1943 UK0837. (Photograph of John Verdun Newton.) (2 November 2014).
6. Parliamentary Library Western Australia, 2014, Serving A Nation: Members of the Western Australian Parliament – World War Two Military Service (2 November 2014).
7. Westralian Worker, 10 March 1944, p. 1.
8. Commonwealth War Graves Commission, n.d. Newton, John Verdun (2 November 2014).
9. Commonwealth Electoral Roll, Western Australia, 1941; Perth, Govt Printer, pp. 31–2.
10. Geraldton Guardian & Express, 9 February 1944, p. 3.
11. David Black & Valerie Prescott, Election Statistics: Legislative Assembly of Western Australia 1890–1996; Perth; Parliament of Western Australia & Western Australian Electoral Commission, p. 131.
12. Parliamentary Library Western Australia, 2014,Electorate Profiles: District of Greenough (Agricultural Region), (2 November 2014).
13. Geraldton Guardian & Express, 3 November 1945, p. 3.
14. Parliament of Western Australia, 2014, "House: Legislative Assembly – Second Reading Date: 5.08 PM Tuesday, 26 October 1999 Member: Thomas, Mr Bill Subject: Heritage Bill 1999 – Second Reading", Old Hansard (2 November 2014).
15. Westralian Worker, 5 November 1943, p. 3.
16. Alan Storr, 2006, RAAF Fatalities in Second World War among RAAF Personnel Serving on Attachment in Royal Air Force Squadrons and Support Units, p. 480.
17. Aviation Research Neustadt, n.d. In Memoriam (2 November 2014).
18. Christ Church Oxford, 2012, John Nigel Richards (21 August 2015).
19. Martin Middlebrook, 2010, The Berlin Raids, Barnsley, S. Yorks.; Pen and Sword, pp. 223–4.
20. Aviation Research Neustadt, n.d. Warmeloh (Google Earth file) (2 November 2014).
21. See Matthew Laird Acred, 2014, Nachtjagdgeschwader 3 (21 August 2015) and; Matthew Laird Acred, 2013, List of aircraft shot down by various Luftwaffe pilots from Jan - Apr 1944 (21 August 2015)

External links

• Parliament of Western Australia, 2015, Biographical Register of Members of the Parliament of Western Australia John Verdun Newton (21 December 2015)
• Aviation Research Neustadt, n.d. F/L John Verdun Newton. (Image of headstone at Hannover War Cemetery.) (2 November 2014)