Obituary CAPT. R. NEWMAN’S VARIED SERVICE

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31676, 11 May 1968, Page 23

Obituary CAPT. R. NEWMAN’S VARIED SERVICE

Captain Ralph Newman, C.8.E., D.S.O. and Bar, VJLD., formerly of Christchurch, died in Napier on Thursday. He was well known as a naval officer, businessman, and patriotic worker. He was 69. Captain Newman was born in London and, after education at various British schools, he served as a cadet in the British India Steam Navigation Company from 1914 to 1918.

He was a junior officer in the Fleet Auxiliaries in 1918 19, a junior then senior officer in the New Zealand Shipping Company from 1919 to 1926, and then served as a representative of the Shell Company of New Zealand, Ltd, from 1928 to 1935. Between 1927 and 1939 he rose from lieutenant to commander in the New Zealand division of the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve. From 1937 to 1940 he was commanding officer of the Canterbury diviski; of the reserve, and from 1951 to 1953 he was commander of the renamed Canterbury Division of the Royal New Zealand Naval Volunteer Reserve which, by then, had headquarters at HM.N.Z.S. Pegasus. Captain Newman, whose Merchant Navy service in the First World War included troop transport and fleet auxi-

liaries and the landing at Gallipoli, had Second World War Service in both the Royal ■Navy and the Royal New Zealand Navy in the English Channel (194041), North Sea (1941-42), and Mediterranean (194344). He returned to be commander and captain, Naval Officer in Charge, Wellington, in 1945 and 1946 Captain Newman was awarded the D.S.O. in 1941 for courage and devotion to duty in channel convoys, the bar in 1945 for minesweeping, con voying, and U-boat patrols, and the C.B.E. in 1946, on his retirement from active service. For the London to Christchurch international air race, he was business representative from 1951 to 1953, after being president of the Canterbury branch of the Navy League from 1949 to 1951. He moved to Napier in 1957 to wort for the Diocese of Waiapu and as secretary of the Napier R.SA. and secretary of the Napier Patriotic Welfare Committee.

Soccer Finalist.—A.C. Milan (Italy) qualified for the final of the European Cup-winners' Cup when it' drew, 0-0, with Bayern Munich in a semi-final second leg. Milan won the first leg, 2-0. It will play another German club, A.C. Hamburg, in the final.