Leonard Delabere Bestall

Denise from Marewa

This is a post from New Zealand Remembrance Army that is shared from Facebook.

An amazing story behind the grave recently cleaned by our team in Napier. Leonard Delabere Bestall was wounded serving as a medic during the First World War, and went on to provide critical welfare support to Kiwi soldiers in Egypt during the Second World War.

The son of a Napier drapery shop owner, he trained as an architect in Christchurch where he served as a Territorial Force member of No.3 Field Ambulance Corps. When war broke out he enlisted in the 11th Reinforcements of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force in December 1915.

Posted as a Private in the New Zealand Army Medical Corps, Leonard arrived in France in July 1916. He joined No.1 Field Ambulance Company, supporting the 1st (New Zealand) Infantry Brigade, with which he first saw action in the Battle of the Somme in September 1916.

Caring for battle casualties again at Messines in July and Passchendaele in early October 1917, Leonard was wounded in action on 22 October when he succumbed to the effects of a German gas shell.

After two months in hospital, and a one month with the Kiwi reinforcements group at Etaples, he rejoined his unit in January 1918. Part of the New Zealand Division's blunting of the enemy's advance during the German Spring Offensive in March, he fell seriously ill in May 1918.

Diagnosed with 'trench fever' he was evacuated to England, where he recovered at Broadhurst Hospital. Despite being discharged for duty a month later, he was classified as unfit for further service and so remained attached to the hospital staff for the rest of the War.

While in England Leonard met Frances Mary Ambler Widdowson of Lincolnshire. She followed him out to New Zealand after his return in April 1919. They were married in Napier in December 1920.

Returning to work in his father's drapery shop, he was also attracted to the arts and was a founder member of the Napier Society of Arts and Crafts. Leonard was also critical in helping raise funds to build the Hawkes Bay Art Gallery and Museum, despite the earthquake in 1931.

Awarded a Coronation Medal in 1937, he was touring the United States and Britain on a Carnegie fellowship when the War broke out in 1939. A dedicated Christian, Leonard volunteered for service with the Church Army in December 1941.

Enlisted in the Second New Zealand Expeditionary Force as a Private, he was generally referred to as Mr Bestall, and was posted to the Kiwi base at Maadi Camp, near Cairo in May 1942.

Eventually appointed an Honorary Captain, "he was responsible for the morale, spiritual welfare and recreational needs of New Zealand soldiers" who rotated through Maadi.

Although well behind the lines, Leonard still had to endure the harsh desert environment and was admitted to hospital for a month in September 1942.

Awarded the Africa Star in 1943, he fell critically ill again in February 1944 and was admitted to hospital in Khartoum, Sudan. After recovering, Leonard spent six weeks working at the New Zealand base camp in Italy, before returning to Egypt.

He departed Suez in August 1944 and returned to New Zealand via Bombay, India. Discharged from the military in November he returned to the family business in Napier.

Continuing his leadership of the art gallery and museum, he was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire in the King's Birthday honours list in 1949, "for services in the fields of art and music."

Leonard was director of the gallery and museum when he passed away in 1959. He created an endowment fund and bequeathed a large sum to the museum. Bestall Street in Maraenui was named after him in the early 1960s.

The humble epitaph on his grave provides just a small hint of his wartime service, but little indication of the major contribution he made to community of Napier and the Hawke's Bay.

A brave man who endured significant deprivations on the battlegrounds of the Western Front, he followed this by making a enduring contribution to welfare of Kiwi soldiers a generation later. Lest we forget.

References:
www.aucklandmuseum.com...
teara.govt.nz...
collection.mtghawkesbay.com...
collection.mtghawkesbay.com...