Bernard Cyril Freyberg was born in Richmond, Surrey, on March 21st 1889
the son of a Surveyor. At the age of two, he and his parents settledin Wellington, New Zealand, and attended Wellington College. He was New
Zealand 100 Yards Swimming champion in 1906 and 1910. Despite his
future military career, he trained as a Dentist, and worked as a locum.
But his military career was at its conception: in 1912 he joined the
New Zealand Territorial Force, and served as a Lieutenant. On the
outbreak of war in Europe, he went to England, and persuaded the
British First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill to grant him a commission
in the British Royal Naval Division. Successfully, he joined the Hood
Battalion, and served in Antwerp and later Gallipoli- winning the
British Distinguished Service Order for gallantry, when he swam ashore
to light diversionary flares at Bulair, Gallipoli. Wounded, he returned
to command the Battalion - before being transferred to the British Army
in January 1916. He was seconded to the Queen's Royal West Surrey
Regiment, and won the Victoria Cross - the highest British decoration -
for gallantry on the Somme battlefields in late 1916.
In February 1917, he was appointed Brigadier General, the youngest in
the British Army at that time. By the end of the war, he had been
awarded two bars to his Distinguished Service Order, and the Order of
the Companions of St. Michael and St. George.
Upon demobilisation in 1919, he was commissioned into the Regular Army,
and served in the Grenadier Guards - as well as in staff positions. Due
to heart problems from his war service, he retired with the rank of
Major General in 1937, having been awarded the Order of the Bath in
1936. In 1940, he was granted command of the 2nd New Zealand Division,
and served in Egypt and Greece. In 1942, he was promoted to Lieutenant
General, and given a knighthood.
Upon retirement in 1946, he was governor-general of New Zealand, and
the holder of the US Legion of Merit. In 1951, he was given the title
of Baron Freyberg of Wellington and Munstead. He died on July 4th 1963,
in Windsor, as a result of a rupture to one of his wounds from the
Gallipoli campaign, leaving a widow and son.
