He was posthumously awarded the George Cross for the gallantry he showed in resisting Japanese torture during the Second World War.

He was educated in England, at Bedales School[2] Newnham was first deployed to France to join the British Expeditionary Force as a Captain with the Middlesex Regiment (Duke of Cambridge's Own) in August 1915.

On 7 January 1918 he married Phillys Edith Henderson at St. Mary's Church, Finchely, Middlesex, England.

He was taken prisoner when the Japanese invaded Hong Kong in December 1941 and, with Captain Douglas Ford and Flight Lieutenant Hector Bertram Gray worked to contact British agents and organise a mass escape.

The Japanese discovered the plan and arrested the trio, torturing them in Stanley Prison in an effort to gain more information.