LIEUT.-COL. FREYBERG, V.C.

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 30 September 1925, Page 9

LIEUT.-COL. FREYBERG, V.C.

EXPLOITS IN THAMES,; VALLEY. TE AROHA-PAEROA SAVIAI. The courageous hut unsuccessful atempt of Lieut.-Colonel B. C. Freyberg, ALC., D. 5.0., to swim the English Channel from Cape Grisnez to Dover recalls feats which Freyberg was wont to perform in the Thames Valley district some 15 years ago. “Tiny,” as he was then known to his intimates, was practising at his profession as a dentist in Morrinsvile, and often took jaunts across to- Te Aroha for a constitutional in the AVaihou river. In those days there were hut three motor boats at- Te Aroha. on© run privately by Air B. O’Neill (now of Tauranga). " One can imagine the latter’s surprise one Sunday morning when he was asked if he would accompany a swimmer from Te Aroha to Paeroa. The feat was easy to “Tiny” Freyberg, and his surgery was opened at the usual time next morning.

Another feat which only an intrepid swimmer like Freyberg would take on was the “shooting” of the falls in Piako river, iust outside Morrinsville. This he would do several times in succession. These feats were little heard of at the time, for B. C. Freyberg was far from ostentatious; he just had : to do these things, and he chose a time when few were about.