John Verdun Newton

John Verdun Newton (12 April 1916 – 14 January 1944) was an Australian politician and Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) officer. While serving with the RAAF in Europe during the Second World War, Newton was elected to the Parliament of Western Australia for the seat of Greenough at the 1943 state election, but was killed in action 55 days later. neither sworn in, nor able to sit in parliament, and

As the Second World War broke out, Newton and his three brothers were working as sharefarmers, growing wheat.

When a State election was announced for 20 November 1943, Newton was pre-selected as the 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. defeating the incumbent, William Patrick of the Country Party. Greenough became one of two seats in the lower house gained by the ALP as it retained government.

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 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.

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. 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. (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. And some other legislators had, like Newton, been elected while on active service.

Few serving members of Australian parliaments have flown on combat operations as military aviators. There may be only one other example: Thomas White was an RAAF staff officer in Europe during the Second World War, while continuing to represent a federal electorate in Victoria. According to the Australian Parliamentary Library, White "surreptitiously flew on several sorties as a second-pilot".

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 1941, with the service number 415270. (This appears to have occurred while Newton was hospitalised due to illness. which was recorded as taking off from Oakington at 16:53, with the crew to mark targets for the main bomber force around Braunschweig (Brunswick), in Lower Saxony. The other crew members were RAF personnel: Flt Lt Roy Bernard 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/front gunner); P/O F. W. Harding (mid-upper gunner) and; F/O J. N. (Nigel) Richards (rear gunner). )

The raid was to be Allied bombers' first major attack on Braunschweig; the operation called for 498 aircraft from Bomber Command to attack targets that included two Messerschmitt aircraft factories. As a relatively direct route was chosen, the pathfinders were detected by German radar at an early stage of the evening. that most likely belonged to locally-based nightfighter unit NJG 3 – although NJG 2 also claimed to have shot down four-engined bombers in the same area that evening. The bomber was reportedly damaged several times by the fighters and caught fire; it then "lost height and completed a 180 degree turn", before apparently attempting a crash landing in a field.

The crew of JA905 were initially buried, along with the wreckage, in the crater caused by the explosion. Following the end of the war, the Commonwealth War Graves Commission exhumed and reinterred their remains at the Hannover War Cemetery.

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