COLONEL FREYBERG, V.C.

Otago Witness, Issue 3510, 21 June 1921, Page 42

COLONEL FREYBERG, V.C.

TO VISIT NEW ZEALAND. KNHKAORDTNARY WAR CAREER. (From Ona Own Correspondent.) 'WELLINGTON, June 16. Lieutenant - colonel Frey berg, V. 0., D. 5.0., intends to visit his mother and other relatives, who reside in Wellington. Frey berg is now a colonel in the Grenadier Guards. He had an extraordinary career in the war, having won several honours and awards, and being", at 27, the youngest brigadier-generai in tiie British army. He has two bars to his D.S.O. He was in the Antwerp expedition with “Churchill’s Army,” and did well there. Afterwards he went to Gallipoli -with the Royal Naval Division, and one ot Mr Asquith),* sons was a lieutenant under him. I remember seeing them both at Alexandra, Asquith going on crutches, and Freyberg, with a bad wound in his arm, trying; to dodge the doctors so that he could -.‘ l, into the light again. I asked him how he was going to manage it, and he said he would take off the bandage and put his Panel in his pocket. Ho certainly managed to get; there before the. wound was healed, as did also several other of the keener spirits. His famous swim, at the Bui air lines, when lie went ashore on ti dark night and lit flares under the noses of the Turks in their trenches as a ruse to make them think there was a landing there, brought iiiin under the notice of the higher command. He seemed to have had a supreme contempt of danger, and his body bears the scars of many wounds. One of these wounds has been giving him trouble lately, so he has obtained leave for a sea trip and a v i.-it to New Zealand.