Cyril Newall, 1st Baron Newall
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Cyril Louis Norton Newall, 1st Baron Newall, GCB OM GCMG CBE AM (1886 - 1963) was a British pilot and political figure who rose to the rank of Marshal of the Royal Air Force and served as Governor-General of New Zealand between 1941 and 1946.
Newall was born in India, then a British possession, in 1886. He joined the Army as part of the Royal Warwickshire Regiment in 1905. He later served on the Northwest Frontier and, while in Britain during 1911 learned to fly a Bristol biplane. He had completed courses at the Central Flying School by 1913 and was posted to teach at the Indian version of the same. He later served in France during the First World War, becoming by 1916 a wing commander under Hugh Trenchard, who would later become the first Marshal of the Royal Air Force.
Following the war he held a number of high-ranking positions within the rapidly-expanding Royal Air Force, including holding positions as Deputy Chief of Air Staff between 1926 and 1931 and subsequently as Air Officer Commanding Middle East through 1935. In 1937 he was appointed Chief of the Air Staff, the military head of the RAF. He was seen in many corners as something of a dark horse, but few doubted his qualification for the job. He immediately set out to expand both the Britain's home air forces and Bomber Command, although he was forced to temper his commitment to bomber forces in the face of political directives.
Newall was still CAS at the outbreak of the Second World War on 1 September 1939. His main contribution to the war effort was his sometimes-successful resistance to the transfer of fighter squadrons to aid the collapsing French. While he was able to prevent ten squadrons being redeployed to France in the final days of July 1940, thus preserving a large portion of the fighter forces that would become crucial during the Battle of Britain, his opposition was seen as intransigence by his superiors. He was promoted to Marshal of the Royal Air Force on 4 October 1940, ironically not three weeks before he stepped down on 24 October; he was, however, able to effectively nominate his successor, choosing Air Chief Marshal Sir Charles Portal. He was then appointed Governor-General of New Zealand, where he helped to shepherd the New Zealand contribution to the war until 1946. That same year he was raised to the peerage as Baron Newall, of Clifton upon Dunsmoor, in the county of Warwick. Lord Newall received numerous other honors between then and his death in 1963, at which time his son Francis inherited his title.
| Preceded by: The Viscount Galway | Governor-General of New Zealand 1941–1946 | Succeeded by: The Lord Freyberg
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