Newall resided in his family's
Surrey home before leaving for
Cairo upon his father's appointment as Air Officer Commanding Middle East. There he remained for four years, returning again to Surrey from 1935 to 1941, at which point he and his family were moved to New Zealand following Sir Cyril's appointment as Governor-General. Unlike the rest of his family, he only remained two years: in 1943, having matriculated at
Eton, he returned home, residing there and with strangers and friends of his parents from then until the end of his father's term of office after the end of the war, in 1946.
Military service
Newall remained at Eton until 1948, when he volunteered for
Army service and was accepted to the
Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. He remained there until successfully completing the course in the middle of 1950, at which point (following further gunnery training) he joined the
11th Hussars, then stationed with the
British Army of the Rhine in
Osnabrück, Germany. He served there and at
Wesendorf for three years, commanding an
armoured cavalrytroop and being promoted Lieutenant in 1952 before the 11th was transferred to
British Malaya (now Singapore and peninsular
Malaysia) in 1953 to combat the increasingly powerful
Communistinsurgency there (see
Malayan Emergency). During his service there, he served in a variety of roles, including intelligence, domestic pacification, and aide-de-camp to General
Sir Charles Loewen, Commander-in-Chief Far East Land Forces. In 1956 he was promoted
Captain and returned to Britain as adjutant to the
Royal Gloucestershire Hussars, and served in a variety of roles thereafter until his 1961 retirement following contraction of
jaundice in
Omagh, Northern Ireland.
Business career
At this point, Newall entered the business world. He joined
Arthur Guinness & Son and subsequently helped found
Harp Lager. During this time he acceded to the peerage following his father's death in 1963, assuming his seat in the
House of Lords as the Lord Newall.[1] He remained with Guinness until 1966, taking a position as public relations spokesmen for
Schweppes USA, Ltd, during which time he took a home in
Connecticut. He returned to the UK in 1972 as managing director for
Neilson McCarthy Public Relations, a position he held until 1975. He has continued to be involved in business since, and presently serves as Chairman of Code Circus Ltd, a
web application development company.
At this time Lord Newall began to engage seriously in politics. He took his seat as a
Conservative member of the Lords shortly following the return to power of
Labour Prime Minister
Harold Wilson, and served as an opposition spokesman and
whip from 1976, his tenure ending upon the victory and accession to power of
Margaret Thatcher. He continued dual involvement in both business and politics through 1983, at which time he entered continental politics as a delegate to the
Council of Europe and
Western European Union. He continued sitting in the Lords, holding his seat for a total of thirty-seven years and introducing six
private members’ bills — four of which were passed – as well as making hundreds of speeches. Since losing his seat on the expulsion of the hereditary peers in the
House of Lords Act 1999 he has become Co-Chairman of the
Hereditary Peerage Association. He has also acted as a representative of the British parliament and the WEU on several occasions: notably, during annual visits from 1986 through 1993 to
Romania, which included private meetings with President
Nicolae Ceauşescu and members of his government; and, more recently, in
Azerbaijan.
Lord Newall also takes active interests in both sports and charity work. He served for twelve years as chairman of the British Greyhound Racing Board[2] and president of the World Greyhound Racing Association. He has been president of
SPANA (Society for the Protection of Animals Abroad), chairman of the Lord Barnby Charitable Association and of the British Moroccan Society, and a committee member for the Not Forgotten Association, which works to provide services for disabled British servicepeople. He is also honorary president of the Committee for Release of Tindouf Prisoners, which campaigns for the release of a great many of the longest-held prisoners in the world who are held in dreadful conditions in a concentration camp in Algeria.
Family
Lord Newall has three children – daughter Miranda and sons
Richard and David – nine grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren with his wife Panna; they have been married since c. 1957. The garden of his home in
Buckinghamshire, where he has resided since c. 1975, is open to the public.
Arms
Coat of arms of Francis Newall, 2nd Baron Newall
Crest
Issuant from an astral crown Or an eagle wings elevated Sable breathing flames Proper.
Escutcheon
Per pale Azure and Gules two lions passant guardant in pale Or on a chief Ermine a rose of the second between a lotus flower and a sprig of New Zealand fern all Proper.
Supporters
On either side a pegasus Argent gorged with an astral crown Or.
Italics in entries mean the titleholder also holds a previously listed barony of greater precedence. ^* Also a Lord in the
Peerage of Scotland, ^• Also a Baron in the
Peerage of Ireland