Captain Leslie Bourneman Neale

MBE Mbe may refer to: * Mbé, a town in the Republic of the Congo * Mbe Mountains Community Forest, in Nigeria * Mbe language, a language of Nigeria * Mbe' language, language of Cameroon * ''mbe'', ISO 639 code for the extinct Molala language Molal ...

ED (26 June 1886 – 26 August 1959) was a Methodist minister and chaplain to New Zealand troops, Christchurch City Council Councillor and church administrator.

Ordination and early service

He was educated at Pukekawa College and the University of Canterbury. Neale offered for the ministry in 1908 and was ordained in 1915 at Christchurch. He married Mary Vickers on 4 December of the same year, after a protracted engagement of seven years; the church had required that they not marry until Neale had been ordained. The conference of the following year approved his chaplaincy with the armed forces. Neale arrived in France in 1917 with the 22nd Reinforcements, saw action at

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and Passchendaele (where he was seriously wounded), and worked with the

Commonwealth War Graves Commission The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) is an intergovernmental organisation of six independent member states whose principal function is to mark, record and maintain the graves and places of commemoration of Commonwealth of Nations mil ...

Gallipoli The Gallipoli peninsula (; tr, Gelibolu Yarımadası; grc, Χερσόνησος της Καλλίπολης, ) is located in the southern part of East Thrace, the European part of Turkey, with the Aegean Sea to the west and the Dardanelles ...

Middle years

On his return to

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

he worked in

Dunedin Dunedin ( ; mi, Ōtepoti) is the second-largest city in the South Island of New Zealand (after Christchurch), and the principal city of the Otago region. Its name comes from , the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. Th ...

and

Christchurch Christchurch ( ; mi, Ōtautahi) is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Canterbury Region. Christchurch lies on the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula on Pegasus Bay. The Avon River / ...

ministering to the poor. He was Superintendent of the Dunedin Central Mission for 20 years, a founder of the Radio Church of the Helping Hand, and founded the Eventide Home in Dunedin. With the onset of the

great depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

, he was instrumental in setting up the first work relief stations in the Christchurch suburb of Papanui. In 1929–31 Neale was elected to the Christchurch City Council. As the depression subsided Neale setup up an early radio show and later health camps funded by special stamps.

World War II

When

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

broke out, Neale was elected president of the

Methodist Church Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related Christian denomination, denominations of Protestantism, Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John W ...

in 1940. At the time, the church forbade use of the pulpit to promote either recruitment or conscientious objection and as president Neale was critical of some pacifist ministers for breaking the policy.

Late life

In the

1948 New Year Honours The 1948 New Year Honours were appointments by many of the Commonwealth realms of King George VI to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of those countries. They were announced on 1 January 1948 for the Britis ...

Neale was appointed a

Member of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

for his long sustained community services. Neale retired in Auckland in 1951, and died on 26 August 1959.

References

Biography

* *''Who’s Who in New Zealand'', 5th edition, edited by G. H. Scholefield p171 (1951, Reed, Wellington)
Military Personnel File (downloadable) for Neale, WWI No 35569
{{DEFAULTSORT:Neale, Leslie Bourneman 1886 births 1959 deaths New Zealand Methodist ministers New Zealand military chaplains New Zealand military personnel of World War I Christchurch City Councillors Religious leaders from Auckland University of Canterbury alumni New Zealand Members of the Order of the British Empire 20th-century New Zealand politicians 20th-century New Zealand Methodist ministers