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Tributes have been paid to highly-respected and much-loved Second World War Bomber Command veteran Douglas Newham, who has died aged 100.
Doug was chairman of Cockermouth Royal Air Forces Association and lived in Caldbeck.
He was well known for his energy and zest for life. He was still enjoying ski trips with his two sons at the age of 95.
Doug’s wartime career included two tours of duty and 60 operations serving as an air observer and navigator on Wellington and Halifax bombers in Europe and North Africa.
A RAFA obituary said: His duties, for which he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross in September 1945, included targeting German industrial areas and U-boat ports, as well as participating in the invasion of Algeria and raids on targets in Sardinia, Sicily, Libya and Tunisia.
In 1944 he became Squadron Navigation Leader of 10 Squadron, at that time based at Melbourne, near York.
Prior to joining the RAF in 1941, Doug was one of the many whose wartime ground-based roles supported the Battle of Britain victory. Working as a civilian for the Post Office Engineering Research Station – a government communication research and development facility – Doug contributed to installing and upgrading the early warning radar network. Part of his job was to travel to radar stations around the UK – vital in the control of Fighter Command during the Battle of Britain – to carry out repairs after bombing raids.
During an interview with the RAF Association in 2020, Doug recalled seeing a German Ju 87 ‘dive-bomber’ overhead one day as he worked at a Kent radar station. He said: “I was a very young man at the time, and, while the experience of being dive-bombed at close quarters was certainly a unique experience for me, I had to carry on with my work.
“Most of the radar stations were bombed repeatedly, and many WAAF radar operators lost their lives.”
After the end of the war, Doug served on RAF Dakota transport aircraft in India and Burma ferrying PoWs who had been released from Japanese camps and dropping food supplies to remote mountain villages before beginning a 35-year civilian career with BOAC, which became British Airways.
As a senior operations manager for the airline, his responsibilities included planning flights for the British Royal Family – work that was acknowledged by HM The Queen when she made Doug a Lieutenant of the Royal Victorian Order in the 1969 New Year’s Honours List.
In their retirement, Doug Newham and his late wife, Julienne, retired to Cumbria. In September 2020, Doug joined celebrities, serving RAF personnel and veterans to launch the Association’s Greatest Salute campaign, helping to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of the Battle of Britain.
He went on to speak on behalf of the RAFA at local, regional and national events.
George Page, the chairman of the RAFA Cockermouth branch, said Doug had been a very active member of the branch’s committee and had encouraged a generation of Cumbrian Air Cadets through his regular talks to them.
“All of us at the branch considered Doug to be one of the most remarkable people we had ever had the privilege of knowing,” said Mr Page.
“Nothing was ever too much trouble for him. Even in his mid-90s he was an active fund raiser and a most effective and diligent chairman who always led from the front.
“We shall not see the likes of him again.”
A service to celebrate Doug’s life was held at St Kentigern’s Church, Caldbeck.
