The rush to enlist
Leonard Leary was a law student at Victoria College (now Victoria University) when war was declared in August 1914. Fiercely patriotic, he was among the men who rushed to sign up to fight at the earliest opportunity. In this extract from a 1982 radio documentary, Leary recalls the heady days when war broke out. He headed down to the Wellington wharves with a group of fellow pro-Empire students to express his support for the war effort, and to enlist in the NZEF.
Year:1914 (Recorded in 1982)
Location:Wellington, New Zealand
The rush to enlist
Leonard Leary was a law student at Victoria College (now Victoria University) when war was declared in August 1914. Fiercely patriotic, he was among the men who rushed to sign up to fight at the earliest opportunity. In this extract from a 1982 radio documentary, Leary recalls the heady days when war broke out. He headed down to the Wellington wharves with a group of fellow pro-Empire students to express his support for the war effort, and to enlist in the NZEF.
Year: 1914 (Recorded in 1982)
Length: 03:16
Production Company: Radio New Zealand
Credits: Presenter: Jack Perkins
Source: Radio New Zealand Collection, Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision
Catalogue Reference: 229033 Spectrum 420. For King and Country
People: Leonard Poulter Leary
Location: Wellington, New Zealand
Leonard Poulter Leary (1891-1990) was born in Palmerston North to a middle class family and educated in Auckland, Palmerston North and then at Wellington College. He was a law student at Victoria College when the First World War broke out and served in the Samoan Expeditionary Force. Leary then enlisted in the British Army where he served with the Field Artillery and fought with distinction in Egypt and France, being awarded a Military Cross.
After the armistice he returned to New Zealand and finished his law degree at Auckland University College. Too old to enlist during the Second World War, he served in the Territorials where he became an officer of the 1st Field Regiment, New Zealand Artillery. He was made a Queens Counsel in 1952 and had a long and successful career as a defence lawyer in Auckland. Politically conservative, he was an active member of the National Party. In 1973 he was awarded a CMG for service to law.
Leary published a number of books, including his account of his service in Samoa, New Zealanders in Samoa in 1918 and a historical novel, Where Rivers Meet, in 1989.