BRIGADIER H. E. AVERY

Press, Volume C, Issue 29474, 28 March 1961, Page 17

BRIGADIER H. E. AVERY

An Appreciation

The death a few days ago of Brigadier H. E. Avery recalls the part this distinguished soldier played as the chief administrative officer of the New Zealand Division in the 1914-1918 war. Behind the efficiency and fighting qualities of the New Zealand Division was a leadership of a high order. It stemmed in the first instance from the divisional commander, the late Sir Andrew Russell, who with fine discernment, so chose his subordinate officers that they could pattern the functioning of the division according to his ideas. On the administrative side of the division. Brigadier Avery was Major-General Russell’s key man. In military jargon he was known as the “A.A and Q.M.G.” His job was of immense importance to every man in the division. On his shoulders fell the responsibility of ensuring that the needs of 20.000 men—food, clothing, transport, equipment, etc.—were daily supplied. It was a job that called for a clear brain, an infinite capacity for detail and a calm judgment that could appraise and make decisions on the many difficult situations that war produces.

All these qualities were combined in an exceptional way in the person of Brigadier Avery. A less able man could have landed the division many times in hopeless confusion. The planning of a divisional move, for instance, from one sector to another was indeed a complicated job. The destination of every single unit of the division had to be carefully plotted, billetting. transport and food supplies, etc., arranged, all under primitive conditions where normal services were disrunted by war. When a move was on Brigadier Avery would stay up all night and when morning came, there would emerge from his night's work a mass of detailed instruction that usually filled about 40 foolscap typed pages. This was the kind of work Brigadier Avery did throughout the war. He was one of those self effacing backroom boys rarely seen on parades but a real force behind the scenes. I pay my own humble tribute to Brigadier Avery’s memory for the part he played to make the lot of the thousands of men who passed through the division less irksome and cheerless than would otherwise have been the case. In my job, in charge of the Y.M.C.A. with the New Zealand Division, it was necessary for me to have almost daily contact with Brigadier Avery. Like his commanding officer. General Russell, his one concern was the well being of the men of the division. He rode rough shod over archaic Army regulations that would frustrate the work we were doing for the men of the division. Little did the men of the division know that the widespread work the Y.M.C.A. was able to do for their benefit was largely made possible by the helpfulness of an obscure highly placed officer whose memory will always be cherished by those who worked with him and knew his great worth. —J.L.H.