Philip Sidney Newton, the third son of Harry and Thelma, was born at “Garfield”, Tubbenden Lane, Farnborough, Kent, on 14 August 1920. Like his brothers he went to Brighton Grammar School (1928) and quickly showed leadership qualities, uniquely winning the Humphrey Cup twice, as the outstanding boy in the Junior School, in 1930 and 1931. Subsequently he became Head Prefect of the School and CQMS of their Officer Training Corps. He represented the school at cricket, football, athletics and rifle-shooting, thus following his father's footsteps to Bisley. 

He wanted to join the Royal Navy but found the necessary Applied Mathematics too difficult, so he took the Civil Service Entrance Examination in 1938, passing 51st out of 135 to the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, which he entered on 30th January 1939. He had decided to join the Indian Army, like Bob had done, but the declaration of War on 3rd September 1939 decided him to join the Royal Sussex Regiment. Training was cut short at Sandhurst and he was commissioned 2/Lt on 22nd October 1939, having passed out 12th from the RMC. He joined the Regimental Dept at Chichester on 11th November and was transferred to the Training Centre at Seaford, where he trained recruits. In August 1939 he had signed on as an amateur by Brighton and Hove Albion Football Club and trained with them, but the war intervened. However, he did play football for the R.M.C. lst XI. 

On 30th May 1940 he was posted to the Sth Bn. (T A) in Tetbury and then moved to Thorn, in Yorkshire, where he formed a tank hunting platoon. In October the Bn. moved to Seaford for coastal defences and, on 8th November 1940, he was promoted to Captain as 2 i/c of a company. More moves occurred early in 1941, to Brasted, Westerham (where he became a company commander) and Ringwold, near Dover. 

In August he was selected by General Horrocks to command the 44 Division NCO School at Bridge, near Canterbury; he subsequently moved the School to Tonbridge in January 1942. At that time he was told to turn the NCO school into a Battle School and was given the local rank of Major because the course was designed for Majors and below, and involved realistic training with live ammunition and explosives (Roy actually attended a course there). 

Later he was promoted to Acting Lt. Colonel (at age 21 Y. he was the youngest officer to hold that rank this century, see Fig 6/) until the school was closed on 27th April for the Division to embark for the Middle East. He rejoined the Sth Bn. and, sailing from Liverpool in the ,\'anta Rosa, the convoy took two months to reach Suez, via Cape Town. 

On 14th August 1942, his 22nd birthday, he moved his Company to Alam Halfa and took part in the battle which started on the 31st. During the battle he commanded two companies in support of 22nd Armoured Brigade, which took the full brunt of Rommel's attack. In late September he was posted to HQ 133 Lorried Inf Bde. as a Staff Captain and took part in the battle of El Alamein. The Brigade was disbanded in December and, in January 1943, he was posted to the Middle East Officers' Cadet Training Unit in Acre, Palestine. 

In October he volunteered to join Force 133 as a Liaison Officer with the partisans in Greece and did his parachute training at Rarncat David in Palestine. However, the civil war in Greece stopped these missions and he then volunteered to operate in France, being flown to England with four other officers, via Gibraltar in a Sunderland flying boat, in January 1944. However, none of these officers was selected for service with the SOE and he spent five months with 2 SAS Regt. in Scotland, which included a refresher parachute course at Ringway, Manchester, during which he 'jumped through the hole' of the notorious Whitley Bomber. 

Brigadier Cyril Lloyd, Deputy Adjutant General 21st Army Group, then made a request, on 27th May, for Philip to become his Staff Captain at Southwick Park, near Portsmouth, which was General Montgomery's Main H.Q. He embarked for Normandy on 27th July 1944 and served with the HQ as far as Brussels in December, having also been attached to H.Q. 43 Div. on the Dutch-German border for a month. 

He was then selected for the Staff College, Carnberley, which he joined on 4th January 1945 (at 24,/2 the youngest student this century to qualify psc), graduating on 5th July. [Strangely, both he and Ron (lb2c) were at their Staff Colleges on V.E. Day) Promoted T/Major on Ist August 1945 he was posted back to 21 st Army Group, which was then at Bad Oyenhausen, Germany, as DAAG (Wehrrnaeht) responsible for the disbandment of the German Army, and he allended the War Crimes Trials in Nuremberg. 

The HQ was re-designated British Army of the Rhine and he remained there nearly three years, successively as DAMS and GSO2 (SD), and took up gliding, passing his 'C' Certificate and becoming Secretary of the BAOR Gliding Club in 1945-48. He next volunteered for the Parachute Regiment in May 1948 (with yet another conversion parachute course at Upper Heyford) returning to Germany (Itzehoe) to serve with the 3rd Bn. In December he was selected as Adjutant (Captain) of the lOth Bn. (T A) in London, where he remained for two years. 

In February 1951 he was re-promoted Major and appointed DAQMG Suez Canal North District in El Ballah, Egypt, and later HQ 3 In£ Bde. Dist. at Ferry Point, Ismalia. On 16th October Egypt abrogated the Suez Canal Zone Treaty and waged a terrorist campaign against the British, killing 54 service- men in six months. Philip was awarded the MBE in the Queen's first Birthday Honours List on 5th June 1952, for his part in the Emergency. He joined the Ist Bn. of his Regiment in Kabrit, Egypt in December and returned to England with them in February 1953, again commanding a Company. The Bn. received the Colours at Arundel Castle from H.M. The Queen Mother later that year and, in May 1954, went to Minden in Germany. In January 1955 Philip returned to London as DAAG in War Office (PAl) and in September/October 1956 took part in the call-up of Army Reservists for the Suez invasion. 

In February 1957 he rejoined the 1st Bn in Korea, travelling in the troopship Oxfordshire via Cape Town (as the Suez Canal was then blocked). En route to Korea he stopped at Hong Kong and was the first of the family to visit Bob's grave in Sai Wan cemetery (Harry and Anne later visited the grave in 1964) When the Bn. left Korea in July he was appointed 2 ic and remained as such in Gibraltar for six months. 

In February 1958 he was appointed Commander of the Depot, which he had first joined in 1939 and, in September, was installed as an Officer of the Order of the House of Orange by Queen Juliana of the Netherlands, who was Colonel-in-Chief. In April 1960 he disbanded the Depot and took command of the Ist Bn. in Northern Ireland, being promoted to Lt. Col. on 6th May (see Fig. 62). The Regiment had been founded ~. Belfast in 1701 and, in 1961, the City honoured it with its Freedom. During an exercise on the Antrim Coast he rescued one of his soldiers from drowning. He took the Bn. to Shorncliffe in November 1961 and handed over command on 17th September 1962. 

On 19th September he was on a troopship (once again the Oxfordshire) which took him to Malaya where he spent nearly 1 1/2 years as GSOI (Senior Staff Officer) 17 Gurkha Division/Malaya Area but. in January 1964 he founded the HQ 17 Division and took it in May to Labuan, North Borneo, to control forces in the confrontation with Indonesia. He visited South Vietnam as an official observer of the War in 1964 and 1965. He was promoted Colonel on 19th August 1965 and posted to MOD (Army) in Whitehall as Col aS (Combat Development) and remained until October 1968 during which time his international responsibilities took him to the USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand which gave him the opportunity to contact many of the Newton Family in those areas. 

He became Vice-Chairman of Army Football in 1966-68, was a Class I Referee 1953- 1970 and has campaigned since 1968 for the game to be controlled by two referees, as in hockey. His next posting, in November, was to the US Army Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth for two years, during which time he again made contact with the North American Newtons and he researched Thelma's ancestry. (See footnote No.19) One of his students there was Lt. Col [later Five Star General] Norman Schwarzkopf: of Gulf War fame. He returned to England in December 1970 and assumed an appointment as Colonel (M3), retiring from the Army on 19th August 1972 after almost 33 years' service. 

He then applied for, and was selected as, Secretary of the Army Museums Olgilby Trust, which advised all the 140 Regimental/Corps Museums of the Army on history and technical museum matters, serving 17 years (1972-1989), during which time he greatly influenced the attitudes and organisation of Army museums. 

He was also influential on many museum committees and trusts, notably the Museums , Association which elected him to the Fellowship on 25th July 1986, being the first ex-regular officer to be so honoured. He was also elected to the Fellowship of the Royal Society of Arts on 14th November 1988. He is author of articles in the Journal of Army Historical Research, the Military Historical Society, and the Museums Association. He has also been reviewing military books for 35 years, is still a trustee of many museum trusts and has been the Honorary Curator of the Staff College Museum since 1990. 

Much of his time has been devoted to a 25- year-long campaign, on behalf of 30,000 veterans, for recognition of their service in the Suez Canal Zone Emergency (1951-1953 ). He was a keen golfer, becoming Club Champion of the Chislehurst Golf Club in 1973, playing off 8 handicap. He played cricket for his Regiment, lncogniti and Sussex Martlets Cricket Clubs. He has been a Member of the M.C.C. since 1969.

He suffered a paralysing stroke on his left side on 11 April 1998, and was taken to Winchester Hospital. He was transferred to a Nursing Home but had a second stroke in mid September, and he died at about 5.a.m. on 30 September, 1998. The funeral service was held at All Saints' Church, Winchester, on Tuesday 6th October, 1998, followed by another service, and interment, at St. Andrew's Church, Chilcomb, with two buglers from his Regiment sounding the Last Post and Reveille. There were 3 Obituary notices, in The Soldier, Friends of the National Army Museum and The Rousillion Gazette.