Brinley Newton-John

Brinley "Brin" Newton-John (5 March 1914 – 3 July 1992) was a Welsh–Australian university administrator, professor of German literature, intelligence officer, and Wing commander during the Second World War. Newton-John took part in the top-secret project founded to decipher the German Enigma machine and arrested Rudolf Hess, who had fled from Germany. He was the father of singer Olivia Newton-John.

Newton-John was widely popular as a professor, being respected and beloved by his students. His charisma earned him a fellowship with the Royal Society of Arts in 1972.

At a young age, Newton-John had an interest in music, learning to play the violin.

Career Newton-John initially served as an administrator at Christ's Hospital from 1936 to 1938, and at Stowe School from 1938 until 1940. As part of that role, he interrogated German prisoners of war and was embedded among German POWs to gather intelligence about the anticipated German invasion of England. Notably, Newton-John arrested Hitler's deputy, Rudolf Hess, who had landed in Scotland. He also participated in the highly classified project at Bletchley Park, aimed at breaking the code of the German Enigma machine. On 5 September 1945, he was promoted to war substantive flight lieutenant.

After his demobilisation at the end of the war, he returned to teaching, as headmaster of the Cambridgeshire High School for Boys. After his retirement, Newton-John began working as a radio and television presenter; after moving to the Manly neighbourhood of Sydney in 1981, he served as a regular presenter on the classical music radio station 2 MBS–FM and was a member of its board of directors. The two had three children, including Olivia. The two divorced in 1958. On 28 June 1963, he married Valerie Ter Wee (née Cunningham), a bookshop manager and pianist, who later worked as a clinical psychologist, with whom he had two children. and was cremated.