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Bill Newton
William Ellis (Bill) Newton, VC (8 June 1919 – 29 March 1943) was an Australian recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest decoration for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to a member of the British and Commonwealth armed forces. He was honoured for his actions as a bomber pilot in Papua New Guinea during March 1943 when, despite intense anti-aircraft fire, he pressed home a series of attacks on the Salamaua Isthmus, the last of which saw him forced to ditch his aircraft in the sea. Newton was still officially posted as missing when the award was made in October 1943. It later emerged that he had been taken captive by the Japanese, and executed by beheading on 29 March.
Raised in Melbourne, Newton excelled at sport, playing cricket at youth state level. He joined the Citizen Military Forces in 1938, and enlisted in the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) in February 1940. Described as having the dash of "an Errol Flynn or a Keith Miller",〔Macklin, ''Bravest'', pp. 195–197〕 Newton served as a flying instructor in Australia before being posted to No. 22 Squadron, which began operating Boston light bombers in New Guinea late in 1942. Having just taken part in the Battle of the Bismarck Sea, he was on his fifty-second mission when he was shot down and captured. Newton was the only Australian airman to receive a Victoria Cross for action in the South West Pacific theatre of World War II, and the sole Australian to be so decorated while flying with an RAAF squadron.
==Family, education and sport==
Born in the Melbourne suburb of St Kilda on 8 June 1919, Bill Newton was the youngest child of dentist Charles Ellis Newton and his second wife Minnie.〔(Newton, William Ellis (Bill) (1919–1943) ) at Australian Dictionary of Biography. Retrieved 18 May 2010.〕〔Weate, ''Bill Newton VC'', pp. 1–6〕 His three older half-siblings from Charles' earlier marriage included two brothers, John and Lindsay, and a sister, Phyllis. Bill entered Melbourne Grammar School in 1929, but two years later switched to the nearby St Kilda Park Central School as the family income was reduced through the impact of the Great Depression.〔 In 1934, aged fifteen, he was able to return to Melbourne Grammar where, despite struggling with his schoolwork, he completed his Intermediate certificate.〔〔Weate, ''Bill Newton VC'', p. 7〕 He gave up further study when his father died suddenly of a heart attack at the age of fifty-one, and began working in a silk warehouse.〔Weate, ''Bill Newton VC'', p. 8〕〔Page, ''Wings of Destiny'', pp. 141–142, 151〕
Considered while at school to be a future leader in the community, Newton was also a talented all-round sportsman, playing cricket, Australian rules football, golf and water polo.〔Stephens; Isaacs, ''High Fliers'', pp. 88–90〕〔Gillison, (''Royal Australian Air Force 1939–1942'', p. 699 )〕 A fast bowler in cricket, he was friends with Keith Miller, and collected the Victorian Cricket Association (VCA) Colts bowling trophy for 1937–38, while Miller collected the equivalent batting prize.〔Perry, ''Miller's Luck'', pp. 30–31〕 In January 1938, Newton dismissed Test batsman Bill Ponsford—still the only Australian to twice score 400 in a first-class innings〔(First-class matches: Most runs in an innings ) at (Cricinfo ). Retrieved 20 May 2010.〕—for four in a Colts game at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.〔Weate, ''Bill Newton VC'', p. 11〕 The following year, he gained selection in the Victorian Second XI.〔 He opened the bowling against the New South Wales Second XI—his first and only match—taking a total of 3/113 including the wickets of Ron Saggers and Arthur Morris who, like Miller, went on to become members of the ''Invincibles''.〔(Victoria Second XI v New South Wales Second XI ) at CricketArchive. Retrieved 26 May 2009.〕
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