Group portrait of Newman family with friends and airmen at Christmas. The Newman family opened ...

Group portrait of Newman family with friends and airmen at Christmas. The Newman family opened their home and provided hospitality to hundreds of airmen from Australia, New Zealand, Canada, South Africa and Poland between August 1941 and 1945. This was part of a voluntary organisation known as the Lady Ryder Hospitality Scheme, set up to ensure that hospitality was provided for airmen arriving in Britain after graduating from the Empire Air Training Scheme. Identified are: Mr Thomson (seated, left), Mrs Ethel Newman (seated, centre), Mr Jocelyn Newman (seated, right), Robert Newman (standing, left, behind Mr Thomson) and William Newman (standing wearing a light coloured jacket). The airmen in the photograph include: 418061 Flying Officer (FO) Gordon James Carmichael, of Mildura, Vic; 409446 Warrant Officer (WO) John Philip (Jack) Read, of Geelong, Vic; R174559 Jim Le Blanc, of Quebec, Canada; 418145 WO Alister Donald Miller, of Melbourne, Vic; 419038 FO Maxwell Hunter (Max) Durham, of Bacchus Marsh, Vic; R119321 J Venn, of Toronto, Canada; 403380 FO James Alexander (Alec) Saint-Smith, DFC, DFM, of Geelong, Vic; 408434 FO James (Jim) Arthur Gordon Beck, DFC, of Launceston, Tas. WO Miller enlisted in Melbourne, Vic on 24 April 1942 and was killed whilst on operations over Germany on 27 April 1945. FO Saint-Smith enlisted in Sydney, NSW, on 6 January 1941 and was killed whilst on operations over France on 29 June 1944. FO Beck enlisted in Hobart, Tas, on 25 May 1942 and was killed whilst on operations over Germany on 4 April 1945.