Captain Jack Bolton Newman RAN – The Grandfather of Information Warfare Officers and RAN Communications

Author

A.N. Other

Subjects

Biographies and personal histories, Naval technology, Naval Intelligence, Biographies

Tags

intelligence

RAN Ships

None noted.

Publication

March 2024 edition of the Naval Historical Review (all rights reserved)

By SBLT Cináed Finall RAN

We are pleased to publish this essay, which was written in 2023 in support of the inaugural Information Warfare Officer Course dux award. Cináed joined the RAN in 2019 and holds a Bachelor of Arts in International and Political Studies and History from the University of New South Wales and is an Australian Defence Force Academy Graduate. He is currently posted to the Communication and Information Systems Maritime Wing (the modern name of the Navy Communications School) at HMAS Cerberus. In future he aims to study for a Masters of War Studies and to continue his passion for historical research. 

The following provides a brief summary of the service career of Captain Jack Bolton Newman.

Promotion History:

Cadet Midshipman: 31/12/1912

Midshipman: 1/1/1917

Acting Sub-lieutenant: 1/9/1918

Sub-lieutenant: 1/12/1918

Lieutenant: 15/11/1920

Lieutenant Commander: 15/11/1928

Commander: 20/4/1939

Acting Captain 29/1/1953

Captain (Honorary) 1/8/1959

Jack Bolton Newman was a pioneer naval officer, communications specialist, advocate of women’s naval service, and supporter to the early days of Australian space and missile testing. He was born on the 14th of May 1899 in Geelong.¹Nicknamed ‘Nunky’ by his peers, he joined the first-ever class of the Royal Australian Naval College (RANC) in 1913.²In terms of leadership accomplishments, the young Cadet Midshipman achieved the position of Cadet Captain in 1913 and Chief Cadet Captain in 1915.³ His time at the college allowed him to continue his passion for sports, a passion that he excelled at. Benefitted by being one of the tallest of his cohort, he was the inaugural winner of the RANC Cross Country, a competition held at the college’s initial location in his native Geelong.⁴ Additional sporting achievements saw Newman earn colours both in cricket and athletics.⁵

Upon graduating the college in 1917 he joined the British Grand Fleet as a Midshipman with elements of his class (including future Chief of Naval Staff John Collins) aboard HMS Canada, which was a super Dreadnaught based out of the Royal Navy’s base of Scapa Flow.⁶ Aboard the Grand Fleet, Newman and his peers would have their first experience of war, although not all would see it through. The passing of his seamanship exams allowed promotion to Acting Sub-Lieutenant, resulting in a posting to HMS Winchelsea the W class destroyer, for the rest of the war.⁷

Following promotion to full Sub-Lieutenant and the end of the Great War, Newman was tasked aboard HMAS J5, one of the J Class submarines given to Australia by the United Kingdom to replace the loss of AE1 and AE2.⁸ Newman and a number of his peers would help transit the new submarines back to Australia in convoy with HMAS Platypus.⁹ During this passage J5 collided with and sank a French sailing vessel in heavy fog while Newman was acting as the Officer of the Watch. Following a Court of Inquiry, the Australian Naval Board sent Newman a report expressing their displeasure over the incident.¹⁰

The interwar years saw Newman begin to rise through the ranks and continue specialisation within communications, a desire which began while serving aboard submarines as a radio specialist.¹¹ Promoted to Lieutenant in 1920, he subsequently undertook both the Long and Advanced Signals course in the United Kingdom. Following the completion of these courses, he was attached as the Signal and Wireless Telephony Officer in the 1st Destroyer Flotilla. Here he served aboard HMS Wallace (Thorneycroft class) and HMS Bruce (Admiralty class).¹²

In 1925 Newman returned to Australia, becoming the Commanding Officer of the Royal Australian Navy Signals School located in HMAS Cerberus.¹³ Leaving a year later he was replaced by the then Lieutenant Hector ‘Hec’ Waller, the future CO of the ill-fated HMAS Perth in WWII.¹⁴

After his time at Cerberus, Newman was posted as the Flag Lieutenant and Squadron Signals and Wireless Telephony Officer to Rear Admiral Hyde, the Commanding Officer of the Australian Squadron.¹⁵ In this role he saw service aboard HMA Ships Sydney (I), Melbourne (I) and Australia (II).¹⁶ He was again posted to the United Kingdom after this rôle for work within the signals division of the Admiralty. In 1932 the then Lieutenant Commander Newman returned as Commanding Officer of the RAN Signals School.¹⁷ In 1934 he began work aboard HMAS Canberra (I) as the Squadron Signals and Telephony Officer.¹⁸

The period before the Second World War saw Newman become the Deputy Director of Signals and Communications in support of Commander Neville Harvey, RN.¹⁹ Armed with a high level of expertise in the communications area he would go on to help Harvey revitalise Australia’s sovereign naval communications. The two communication officers sought to facilitate the establishment of a national communications network. This eventuated in the naval wireless stations of HMAS Coonawarra (Darwin), Jandakot (Fremantle) and Belconnen (ACT). Notably, Harvey and Newman took an interest in the naming of such stations. As a result of what appeared to be a continued decline of interest by the Australian Commonwealth Naval Board, the two communication officers decided to test the limits of such naming. The contraction ‘Harman’ (Harvey + Newman) was submitted and approved by the board without inquiry.²⁰ Newman would later recall the events, stating it was ‘a chance too good to miss’.²¹ Upon promotion to Commander, Newman opened the new Harman Wireless Transmission Station as its Officer in Charge on the 20^th of April 1939.²²

The advent of the Second World War saw increased importance on both signals communication and intelligence. Commander Newman, now Director of Signals and Communications, worked with the Director of Naval Intelligence Commander Rupert Long, RAN (a fellow 1913 RANC entry) and Commander Eric Nave, RN (an Australian working for the RN), to establish the Special Intelligence Bureau in Melbourne.²³ This was a joint Army-Navy code-breaking unit. Essentially Nave ran the code-breaking team, Long used it as an enabler of wider intelligence and Newman acted as the supervisor while providing the capability to facilitate its use.²⁴

Following the fall of the Philippines, United States military code breakers joined the unit, eventually consolidating as the Fleet Radio Unit (FRUMEL).²⁵ FRUMEL would contribute significantly to Allied victories in the Battle of the Coral Sea and Midway, as well as leaving a legacy for what would become the current Australian Signals Directorate.²⁶ Newman eventually would serve as the Officer in Charge of FRUMEL as American officers started to return to the United States.²⁷

The reworking of the Navy’s communications infrastructure system required significant resources, Newman needed a trained and skilled workforce to help supplement the already low numbers of trained personnel. In 1941, at the request of the Naval Board Newman visited and assessed the Women’s Emergency Signals Corp led by Mrs Florence Violet Mackenzie (known as Mrs Mac). Having found their skills to be highly proficient he recommended that they be incorporated into the RAN.²⁸ In spite of much resistance from the Naval Board, Newman’s advocacy would become successful, as they were eventually approved, and the Women’s Royal Australian Naval Service (WRANS) was born.²⁹

The first WRANS telephonists were sent to work in HMAS Harman (now a commissioned naval establishment) and FRUMEL.³⁰ These WRANS sailors and officers would be critical enablers for the communications and intelligence network formed by Long and Newman. In later years Mrs Mac and Newman were seen both as the mother and father of the WRANS.³¹ Speaking in a wartime interview, Newman commented ‘I have the honour of having persuaded the Naval Board that the WRANS would help us to a great extent … I don’t know how we would get along without them’.³²

The end of the war saw Newman continue as the Commanding Officer of FRUMEL. In 1949 he was assigned to the Long-Range Weapons Project, a joint UK-Australian project serving as the Naval Staff Officer to its Board of Administration in Melbourne.³³In 1953 as an Acting Captain, Newman became the Superintendent of the Woomera Long-Range Weapons Range, a place that would see the beginning of Australian space research and missile testing. Here he oversaw programs such as the Skylark atmosphere space research rocket and the Black Knight rocket.³⁴The latter was a test bed for what would become the British Blue Streak rocket system, planned for both nuclear capability and the early days of satellite launch systems.³⁵

 On the 13^th of May 1959, Newman celebrated his 60th birthday and subsequently joined the retired list after 47 years in the Royal Australian Navy.³⁶ On the 7th of August, after being in temporary service since joining the retired list, his service was fully terminated. Upon full retirement on the 8th of August, he was granted the honorary rank of Captain.³⁷Today Captain Jack Bolton Newman continues to be associated with Harman, with Newman Crescent named after him.³⁸He is also honoured for his pioneering efforts alongside Mrs Mac in the ‘CAPT Jack Newman, RAN –Mrs Florence McKenzie, OBE, Information Warfare Officer Level One Award’ for Dux of Course.

Why Captain Jack Bolton Newman is considered the Grandfather of IWO

Captain Jack Bolton Newman, RAN was put forward as the Grandfather of Information Warfare Officers because he represents a point in time where we can draw our legacy from. The modern IWO has a wide basis of Electronic Warfare, Space, Cyber, Communications and Data Networks and Influence Activities. Where we can draw the lineage of an IWO is through the role of a Communications Officer. This is because it is the only part of the modern IWO that can be continually traced back to the start of the Royal Australian Navy. Newman, by being part of the first RANC class and the only one to deeply specialise in communications, represents a linkage that is wholly Australian, continuously links throughout our shared history as a navy and showcases an origin of how many of our now modern bases and organisations were born. (Harman, ASD etc.) Captain Newman with Captain Nave and Commander Long represents a legacy relationship of intelligence and communications, one that is reciprocated by the modern Navy Intelligence and Information Warfare Branch (NIIWB). Additionally, he can be further linked through the areas of space due to his involvement with early rocketry at Woomera Range, thus providing a further association with the present and future of our navy. His legacy is underrepresented and not thoroughly understood within the contemporary Royal Australian Navy, with this biography being the first known text written wholly on him. His contribution to the Navy created HMAS Harman, the Women’s Royal Australian Naval Service, the Fleet Radio Unit and a national communications and signal network that both facilitated intelligence and the operation of our fleet at sea. Hence to help foster culture and traditions for our new branch, Captain Jack Bolton Newman, RAN is seen as the grandfather of what is now an Information Warfare Officer.

 Bibliography

Gazette: Naval Forces of the Commonwealth. Commonwealth of Australia Gazette. No.65, 22 October 1959. 3748.

Collie, Craig. Code Breakers: Inside the Shadow World of Signals Intelligence in Australia’s Two Bletchley Parks. Allen & Unwin, Crows Nest, 2017.

Dufty, David. Radio Girl: The Story of the Extraordinary Mrs Mac, Pioneering Engineer and Wartime Legend. Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 2020.

Eldridge, F.B. History of the Royal Australian Naval College. Georgian House. 1949.

Fahey, John. The Official History of the Australian Signals Directorate, Vol 1: Factory. 1st Ed. Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 2023.

Jones, Peter. Australia’s Argonauts: The Remarkable Story of the First Class to Enter the Royal Australian Naval College. Echo Books, Griffith, ACT, 2018.

Jose, Arthur W. Official History of Australia in the War of 1914-18. Vol. IX – The Royal Australian Navy. 4th Ed. Angus & Robertson Ltd., Sydney, NSW, 1937.

National Archives of Australia: A10909, Fleet Radio Unit Melbourne FRUMEL Officers, Department of Defence, 1943.

National Archives of Australia: A3978, Officers (RAN) personal record – Jack Bolton Newman Department of Defence. 1922-1959.

National Archives of Australia: A6769, Service Record of Jack Bolton Newman, Department of Defence, 1911-1970.

National Archives of Australia: D874, N59/1301, Captain J. Newman, Range Supt, Department of Defence, 1959.

National Archives of Australia: D874, NJ434, Woomera, Lord Mountbatten, Department of Defence, 1956.

Nelson, Annette. HMAS Harman 1943-2003: A History of HMAS Harman and its People. HMAS Harman. 2003.

Reed, R.A. Belconnen Naval Wireless Station and HMAS Harman 1939-1996. Naval Historical Review, June 1997.

Royal Australian Navy. HMAS Harman. Department of Defence, 2023. https://www.navy.gov.au/ establishments/hmas-harman.

The Australasian. ‘These Men Direct Australia’s Navy.’ The Australasian. December 21, 1940. P38.

The National Archives. Public Information Films: 1951 to 1964: Film Index: The Blue Streak Rocket. The National Archives, Kew, Surrey TW9 4DU, March 27, 2006. https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/films/1951to1964/filmpage_rocket.htm.

Footnotes:

1   National Archives of Australia: A6769, Service Record of Jack Bolton Newman. Department of Defence. 1911-1970.

2   Peter Jones. Australia’s Argonauts: The Remarkable Story of the First Class to Enter the Royal Australian Naval College. Echo Books, Griffith, ACT, 2018. 49.

3   F.B. Eldridge. History of the Royal Australian Naval College. Georgian House. 1949.

4   Ibid, 62, 49.

5   F.B. Eldridge. History of the Royal Australian Naval College.

6   Arthur W Jose. Official History of Australia in the War of 1914-18. Vol. IX – The Royal Australian Navy. 4^th Ed. Angus & Robertson Ltd., Sydney, NSW, 1937. 475.

7   NAA, A6769, 1911-1970.

8   Ibid.

9   Peter Jones. Australia’s Argonauts, 189.

10 National Archives of Australia: A3978, Officers (RAN) personal record – Jack Bolton Newman Department of Defence. 1922-1959.

11 Collie, C. Code Breakers: Inside the Shadow World of Signals Intelligence in Australia’s Two Bletchley Parks. Allen & Unwin, Crows Nest, 2017. 94.

12 NAA, A6769, 1911-1970.

13 Ibid.

14 See List of Commanding Officers of RAN Signals School Honour Board.

15 Peter Jones. Australia’s Argonauts, 225.

16 NAA, A6769, 1911-1970.

17 Ibid

18 Peter Jones. Australia’s Argonauts, 302.

19 Ibid.

20 Peter Jones. Australia’s Argonauts, 303.

21 R.A. Reed. Belconnen Naval Wireless Station and HMAS Harman 1939-1996.’ Naval Historical Review, June 1997. 1.

22 Royal Australian Navy. HMAS Harman.’ Department of Defence, 2023. https://www.navy.gov.au/establishments/hmas-harman.

23 Peter Jones. Australia’s Argonauts, 332.

24 Ibid, 333.

25 Craig Collie. Code Breakers. 88.

26 John Fahey. The Official History of the Australian Signals Directorate, Vol 1: Factory. 1^st Ed. Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 2023. 14.

27 Craig Collie. Code Breakers. 185.

28 David Dufty. Radio Girl: The Story of the Extraordinary Mrs Mac, Pioneering Engineer and Wartime Legend. Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 2020.

29 Ibid. 151.

30 David Dufty. Radio Girl. 155.

31 Peter Jones. Australia’s Argonauts. 421

32 Ibid.

33 NAA, A6769, 1911-1970.

34 Peter Jones. Australia’s Argonauts. 665.

35 The National Archives. Public Information Films: 1951 to 1964: Film Index: The Blue Streak Rocket’ The National Archives, Kew, Surrey TW9 4DU, March 27, 2006. https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/films/1951to1964/filmpage_rocket.htm.

36 Peter Jones. Australia’s Argonauts. 668.

37 Gazette: Naval Forces of the Commonwealth. Commonwealth of Australia Gazette. No. 65. 22 October 1959. 3748.

38 Annette Nelson. HMAS Harman 1943-2003: A History of HMAS Harman and its People. HMAS Harman. 2003.