Bernard Cyril Freyberg was born at Richmond, London, on 21 March 1889. He was the youngest son of James Freyberg, a surveyor, and his wife, Julia Hamilton. He came to Wellington with his family in 1891 and received his early schooling from his mother, later attending Wellington College from 1897 to 1904.

Freyberg’s first military involvement had been in the school cadets at Wellington College. While in Morrinsville he was persuaded by the commander of the local Territorial Force company, Stephen Allen, to become one of his subalterns. He unsuccessfully sought a commission in the New Zealand Staff Corps in 1912, and from January 1913 served as a lieutenant in a senior cadet company.

He took part in strike-breaking activities on the Wellington waterfront in 1913, both as a special constable and as a stoker on a ship plying between Wellington and Sydney. In March 1914 he left Wellington for San Francisco. After some weeks of indecision, Freyberg went south to Mexico, and may have been involved in the civil war then raging in that country. Upon hearing of the outbreak of war in Europe in August 1914, however, he immediately set off for England.

Freyberg secured a commission in the newly formed Royal Naval Division’s Hood Battalion. He was gazetted as a temporary lieutenant in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, and given command of a company. Relishing the opportunity presented by the war (‘I am in this with all my heart’), he took part in the brief, unsuccessful attempt to defend Antwerp in October 1914. Early in the Gallipoli campaign in 1915 he won a DSO for swimming ashore and setting diversionary flares at Bulair (Bolayir). He was wounded at Helles, returning in June to become commander of the Hood Battalion. He was badly wounded again in July, and eventually left the peninsula when the division was evacuated in January 1916.

Transferring to the British Army, Freyberg was posted to the Queen’s Royal West Surrey Regiment, but remained seconded to the Royal Naval Division, with which he proceeded to France in May 1916. During the final stages of the first battle of the Somme, he so distinguished himself in the capture of Beaucourt village that he was awarded a VC; he was again severely wounded in this action and evacuated to Britain. Returning to the front in February 1917, he was two months later appointed to command a territorial brigade in the 58th Division – reputedly becoming the youngest general in the British Army. In September a shell exploding at his feet inflicted the worst of his many wounds. When he resumed duty in January 1918 he again commanded a brigade (in 29th Division), performing with distinction during the German offensive of March–April 1918.

He won a bar to his DSO in September that year. Freyberg ended the war by leading a squadron to seize a bridge at Lessines, which was achieved one minute before the armistice came into effect and which earned him another DSO. He had been made a CMG in 1917, and was mentioned in dispatches no fewer than five times during the war. Three of his brothers had also served in the war and two died: Oscar at Gallipoli in 1915 and Paul in France in 1917.

Ian McGibbon. 'Freyberg, Bernard Cyril', from the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography. Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, updated 25-Sep-2013 URL: www.TeAra.govt.nz/en/biographies/5f14/freyberg-bernard-cyril

The above image is from Archives New Zealand's National Collection of War Art. Painted by Peter McIntyre in Oils, measuring 910 x 800mm. Published in the Illustrated London News on 19 June 1943.

Archives New Zealand Reference: AAAC 898 NCWA 015

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