Pacific ships

RN · Captain

William-Powlett, Newton James Wallop

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Newton James Wallop William-Powlett commanded Gambia from 24 August 1943 to 28 April 1945. He commissioned her at Liverpool on 22 September 1943 as a ship of the Royal New Zealand Navy, took her to the Eastern Fleet, and had her through the Sakishima strikes until Captain Ralph Alan Bevan Edwards relieved him at Leyte. He was the elder brother of Vice-Admiral Sir Peveril William-Powlett. They are not the same officer.

Unithistories and uboat.net agree that he was born on 26 June 1896 at Christchurch, Hampshire, and that he died on 10 November 1963 in the Honiton district. S. D. Waters's footnote says only "born Devon, 1896." Unithistories names his parents as Major Barton Newton Wallop William-Powlett (1871–1953) and Emily Charlotte Tyndall Reibey, who died in 1954, and his wife as Barbara Patience Greenwell, whom he married in 1929. She was the daughter of Bernard Eyre Greenwell. They had one son and two daughters.

Uboat.net's rank line is midshipman on 15 January 1914, acting sub-lieutenant on 15 January 1916, sub-lieutenant on 30 August 1916, lieutenant on 30 March 1917, lieutenant-commander on 30 March 1925, commander on 30 June 1931, and captain on 31 December 1938. Unithistories gives the same captain's date and a retirement on 8 January 1948, and dates his entry to the Navy to 15 May 1909. Waters says he entered in 1908. The DSC is dated 31 May 1916 on both uboat.net and unithistories. On that day, by the uboat.net rank line, he was an acting sub-lieutenant. Waters calls him a sub-lieutenant of Tipperary at Jutland. Uboat.net's career line says he survived the loss of Tipperary on 31 May 1916. Unithistories prints the recommendation: he showed coolness under most trying circumstances, and his pluck and cheerfulness after the ship sank saved men who would otherwise have given in. Unithistories also lists a mention in despatches for 1916, with no day.

Between the wars unithistories has him at the anti-submarine school at Portland, as fleet anti-submarine officer in Queen Elizabeth and then Warspite in the Mediterranean, in Nelson, at the staff college at Greenwich, and as executive officer of Courageous from November 1935. He took the senior officers' war course in April 1939.

He commanded the cruiser Calypso from 31 July 1939. Uboat.net ends that command on 13 December 1939. Unithistories has him as commanding officer of Osprey, the anti-submarine establishment at Portland, from 22 December 1939, and then commanding officer of the Anti-Submarine Experimental Establishment at Fairlie from 28 November 1940. Waters puts that shore job at 1940–42. Uboat.net then gives him Dauntless from 23 November 1942 to 1 August 1943. Unithistories dates the Dauntless command from 18 October 1942 and still shows it in the June 1943 list.

He joined Gambia on 24 August 1943, while she was still HMS Gambia and still in the Liverpool refit. On 22 September he commissioned her as HMNZS Gambia. Waters says a few of the officers and three-quarters of the ratings were New Zealanders. He worked her up at Scapa Flow and took her on Operation STONEWALL in December. She did not reach the action in which Glasgow and Enterprise (D52) sank the German destroyers. He wrote that she could merely play the part of an exasperated listener-in. He took her out to Trincomalee, arriving on 19 February 1944, and had her for the Sabang and Sourabaya carrier strikes and for the bombardment of Sabang on 25 July, the first time her guns fired at Japanese shore defences. After the New Zealand visit and the Auckland refit he took her into the British Pacific Fleet. She joined Task Force 57 on 23 March 1945. He was still in command when she towed Ulster to Leyte and when her pom-pom shot down a Hellcat on 13 April. Edwards arrived on 27 April and assumed command on 28 April. Unithistories indexes him as commanding officer of HMNZS Gambia from 22 September 1943 and, in the July 1945 list, as having no appointment. That July blank agrees with the April relief. It does not keep him in the ship through the summer.

Uboat.net says he commanded Sussex from January 1947. Unithistories lists him borne in President by April 1946, and as Naval Aide-de-Camp to the King from 8 July 1947 until he retired on 8 January 1948. He died at Honiton on 10 November 1963.