Tributes have been paid to an RAF veteran from Caldbeck who flew in bombers during World War Two and ended his career supervising flights by the Concorde supersonic airliner.
Doug Newham, who has died just four months after his 100th birthday, was part of a five-strong Wellington bomber crew on his first tour of 30 operations and a navigator instructor for 18 months before a second tour.
After the war, he spent 35 years as an operational manager with BOAC – which later became British Airways – overseeing the airline’s bases in countries as far-flung as Egypt, Iraq and Kuwait. During his post-war career, Doug witnessed the development of the modern aviation industry, first with the introduction of the 747 Jumbo jet and later Concorde.
“It was the best job in the airline, but it called on all my experience,” he said. “If anything went wrong, anywhere around the world, then I’d be out of a job.”
Born and raised on the outskirts of London, Doug began his Second World War service in radar research. He then joined the RAF, specifically to be a bomber navigator, and won the Distinguished Flying Cross, awarded for exemplary gallantry during active operations against the enemy in the air.
“Casualty rates among bomber air crew were pretty horrible,” he recalled. “We were fighting for the existence of the UK so that was a job to do. Most times you lost your friends because they didn’t come back. You didn’t encounter many casualties.”
Doug latterly moved to Cumbria with his late wife Julienne — whom he had married in 1947 — and lived at Sandale, north of Keswick, before moving to Caldbeck after his wife’s death. To celebrate his 100th birthday last November, a Hercules aircraft from RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire flew over his house.
Geoff Hine, a lay-preacher and close family friend, said: “Doug was a wonderful man with a wonderful sense of humour who cared for so many others.
“He was bright as a button right to the end, and had more energy than people half his age. He was a keen skier and only gave up when he was 95!
“Like many other veterans he rarely spoke of his experiences during the war, but his contribution is unquestioned.”
Shortly before his 100th birthday, Doug was taken to Yorkshire Air Museum, where he was re-united with a Handley Page Halifax.
“They got me into the aircraft, on my hands and knees, with a bit of help,” he said. “I got all the way along it and down a few steps to my old navigation compartment in the
nose.
“It was 75 years since I was last in the aircraft and I could shut my eyes and I knew where everything was. I could put my hands on this, that and the other, all the bits.
“Absolutely bloody amazing the way the whole thing came back.”
He was also given the honour of laying a wreath on behalf of the village during last year’s Remembrance Day.
“I found that a little difficult,” he said. “It was a long time ago, to wartime, but quite amazing how familiar some of those days still are. When Remembrance Day comes around and you think about all the mates you lost — there were dozens and dozens.
“The squadron perhaps sent 15 to 20 aircraft out on a bomber raid, and most frequently one, two or three of them just didn’t come back. You didn’t know why they hadn’t come back; you were always keeping your fingers crossed that they’d had a little mechanical failure or had landed in another airfield to refuel, but they just wouldn’t come back.”
Doug always spoke of Caldbeck being a wonderful village with a great community spirit. And at the age of 100 he remained proudly independent. “I do my own online shopping, my own cooking and my own laundry,” he said.
A private family funeral will be held, followed by a public memorial service at a date to be confirmed.
