GENERAL FREYBERG

Grey River Argus, 23 May 1941, Page 10

GENERAL FREYBERG

“PLOUGHED” IN 1937.

LONDON, May 1

Writing in a Manchester newspaper Lieutenant-General Sir D. Brownrigg describes General B. C. Freyberg, V.C., G.O.C. of the Second N.Z.E.F., as “the New Zealand Commander who fought doctors.” “General Freyberg retired in 1937 through his failure to pass the necessary medical test prescribed by military regulations for retention on the active list of the Army. He was then the youngest major-general, being only 47 years old,” General Brownrigg stated. “He fought against the medical authorities in attempts to remain in against the enemy in the last war. the army as hard as he ever fought but all to no avail. His heart was supposed to be affected. “He challenged the doctors who had ‘ploughed’ him to take part with him in a mountaineering expedition, the survivors of the attempt to test his heart when they reached the summit, if any of them ever did! The wages was not accepted, and General Freyberg went disconsolate into retirement.

“Very soon after the war broke out he was recalled to the active list and put in command of the New Zealand forces then assembling in Egypt. It is indeed a paradox that the man who was officially too ill to remain on the active list in peace should be considered well enough to be sent to command a force in the field on the outbreak of war.”