GENERAL FREYBERG AT HOME

New Zealand Listener, Volume 2, Issue 29, 12 January 1940, Page 3

GENERAL FREYBERG AT HOME

The Man Behind The Soldier

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VERY New Zealander, by this time, is familiar with the military exploits of Major-General B, C. Freyberg, V.C., C.B. C.M.G., D.S.O., so there will be little reference to them here. He is our greatest soldier -our most distinguished hero of the Great War. 5 But how many of them know that his wife is a kinswoman of Miss Gertrude Jekyll, whose fascinating and diverting books gave to gardening a romance and a flavour it had never previously known. I was ignorant of that fact until I met General Freyberg at his hotel, The Grenadier Guards officer who is to command the Second New Zealand Division in the field had just returned from one of his many conferences, and we had only a few minutes together. His list of engagements is such that almost every available moment of his stay in New Zealand is occupied with military and official duties. We did not talk of the war (for he had revealed all the information possible at a moving and enthusiastic civic reception only a few hours previously), but of his country home, Munstead House, near Godalming, in Surrey. The summer months are spent there; afterwards he and his wife return to their London home in Clarendon Place. "My wife was a Miss Jekyll," the General told me, "and Munstead House is her home. There are twenty acres of garden-woodland and heath-and we specialise in rhododendrons, azaleas, heaths, and heathers. It is all very lovely and made more beautiful by the years, for it was laid out nearly: one hundred years ago. Thirty-seven Babies "T have left my wife there and now she has 37 babies, all under five years of age, at Munstead House. They are babies who have been evacuated from the East End of London, and very fine children they are." General Freyberg and his wife, like many thousands of others in Britain, are sacrificing the beauty of their century-old garden in the national cause. From being a pleasure garden, that of Munstead House is becoming a productive garden. No doubt it will produce vegetables as beautiful in their way as the flowers which now flourish in its groves and upland reaches. When this war is ended the General hopes to bring his wife to New Zealand, that she may see something of the scenic beauty of this Dominion in spring and summer, for New Zealand, despite the years of absence, is still very dear to him. That is why, when war broke out, he immediately offered his services to the Government. From gardening our conversation turned to his own son, now sixteen and a-half years of age and attending Eton, England’s most famous Public School. "He is a good open-air boy," the General remarked, "yes, and a good Rugger player. He captained the junior Eton side last year and he got his lower boats." So it seems that General

Freyberg’s son will become, as_ his father described himself at his civic reception, "a staunch and determined New Zealander." It is quite within the bounds of possibility, also, that some day he may meet the All Blacks on the international Rugby field. Yachting and Swimming I asked the General about swimming, remembering his superb feat at Gallipoli and the stories of his exploits in the Wellington Harbour as a boy. On one occasion, when his yacht overturned, he swam almost from Somes Island back to the boat harbour in Oriental Bay. He always swims in the sea ‘when opportunity offers; he has done so since his return to Wellington, despite the icy bleakness of a southerly. When in London, the General takes his aaily swim at the Bath Club, of which he is a member, as he is of the Guard's Club, the Army and Navy and Pratt’s Club. General Freyberg has never forgotten his early yachting experiences in and around Wellington Harbour. New Zealand, he considers, is an ideal place in which to bring up children. " Here," he remarked, "they are able to lead a happy, hard life; here you have most perfect playgrounds. Yachting can be enjoyed under the most perfect conditions. It is cheap--the poor man’s pastime. In other countries yachting is an expensive sport." And yachting, he thinks, is the ideal method of training a boy, for in the handling of a small boat he develops self-reliance, character, and the ability to make quick decisions. Changes in Wellington Speaking superficially of Wellington itself, for he has had time only to see the city from a taxi, the General is amazed at the great changes which have taken place in the last eighteen years. Some of those changes make him feel rather sad-the changes at Lyall Bay, for example, which he thinks is rather spoiled when compared with the bay he remembers.. He has sought in vain for many of the old familiar landmarks, but he is pleased to see that the boat harbour and the baths in Oriental Bay are still where they were when he was a boy. We had gone into the General’s private sitting room, where a pile of letters and telegrams awaited him from people in all parts of the Dominion. Before he began to chat those letters and. telegrams received attention — swiftly and deliberately. I watched the concentration of his steadfast brown eyes, which instantly suggest courage, unswerving fidelity, and quick perception. Humour lurks there too, when duty is finished. I studied the three rows of ribbons on his tunic, beginning with the deep red of the Victoria Cross; I noticed the decisive movements of the firm, capable hands. His whole. bearing creates a sense of confidence, of trust; one feels that here is a leader of men and a leader who will understand and know them. I was not out of the room after our short chat ended before he was

busy with his orderly officer, occupied meticulously with the dozen and one details which are the inevitable duty of a man in whose responsibility rests the honour and reputation of the Second New Zealand Division. That he is proud of the appointment and proud of the men he will lead is obvious from his every reference to the past reputation of those he has described as " adventurous New Zealanders."