Book description
Sir Howard Kippenberger is widely acknowledged as the ideal of a New
Zealand citizen-soldier and our foremost soldier-scholar; a country
lawyer and provincial intellectual who became a national figure as New
Zealanders made the transition from colonials to a forthright
nationhood. As a military leader, editor and author he was one of the
prime movers in that process. His democratic style of leadership
reflected the ethos of a new nation - active, competent and engaged in
the world in its own right, no longer a dependency of Britain A
second-generation New Zealander, born in 1897, his military career was
probably unique in that he was a 19 year old private soldier in one war
and emerged in the next as the commander of choice of what was in effect
a national army - the 2nd NZ Division - whenever the British-born (and
trained) Bernard Freyberg was absent. Kip was never a regular officer; a
part-time Territorial soldier in peacetime, with no formal British staff
training, he stood in the line of the New Zealand self-made man.
Hard-boiled ordinary New Zealanders at war truly admired and respected
him, not only for his mastery of the business of fighting but because he
was known for a very real and deep rapport with his soldiers and concern
for their welfare; he "made men realise that here was one who
thought more of them than of himself." Dennis McLean had a
distinguished career in the public service: Dept of External
Affairs/Ministry of Foreign Affairs for 21 years; posted to Washington,
Paris, Kuala Lumpur, London (Deputy High Commisioner, 1972-77);
Secretary of Defence, Wellington, 1979 - 88; New Zealand Ambassador
Washington, 1991 - 94. He was also a writer and military historian, was
a Rhodes Scholar, and wrote four books.
