Henry Leonard Boultbee (1901-1976)

Henry Leonard Boultbee (1901 - 1976)

[The following notes were given to us by his elder son Nicholas to whom we are indebted for the details of his father's interesting career. Ed.]

     He was known as Leonard, and was born in the Rectory of Hargrave, a village in Northamptonshire. He was educated at Denstone School, and then entered the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, from which he graduated in 1921 having won the Sword of Honour, the Weapon Training Sword, and the King's Medal (Anson Memorial Medal) achieving first place in military and academic subjects.
     He was commissioned in the Royal Warwickshire Regiment and spent some years doing regimental duties in England. In 1930 he married Beryl Wiener, an accomplished Australian, who had received her senior education in France. The wedding had a Commonwealth flavour the bride hailed from Australia, Leonard's mother from Canada, with the bridesmaids coming from Australia, Canada, South Africa and England.
     The newly married couple went to live in Nigeria following Leonard's secondment to the West African Frontier Force. They returned to England briefly where Nicholas, Leonard's eldest son, was born in 1934. Shortly thereafter Leonard transferred to the Indian Army joining Skinner's Horse (1st Duke of York's Own Cavalry).
     He saw active service on the North West Frontier of India in the campaigns of 1937/38. Although this military operation was supported by aircraft and armoured cars, Leonard led his cavalry squadron into action in what was possibly the last battle by horsed cavalry in the British or Indian armies.
     In September 1939, with the rank of Major, he was appointed Adjutant of the Calcutta Light Horse, tasked to prepare the regiment for war. One of his first duties was to organize the disposal of the horses and acceptance of trucks in their place.
     In a freak accident in February 1940, Leonard broke his neck. After suffering through the tropical heat and humidity encased in a plaster cast from waist to chin, he was sent to the main British Army base hospital near Cairo, Egypt.
    His wife and son continued the journey on to England but were nearly captured in France by the German Army. Fearing to travel further by ship, because of the risk of being sunk by German submarines, Beryl disembarked at Marseilles to travel by train to Cherbourg. This was a few days after the German Army had broken through the French and British lines and were advancing rapidly to the Channel coast.
     Luck was with Beryl and Nicholas as their train was the last to reach Cherbourg before Rommel's advancing Panzers cut the line. They owe their lives to this famous German General who forbade the German airforce to attack the ship, the last one to escape before the Germans arrived, as it was clearly carrying civilian refugees.
     Leonard after recuperating and declared fit for duty joined the staff of the 4th Indian Division which was part of the British force which routed the Italian Army and liberated Ethiopia. The division then moved to Egypt where it figured prominently in the early desert battles. By this time, mid 1941, Leonard held a senior staff appointment as DAA&QMG (Assistant Chief of Staff for Administration, Personnel and Logistics) to the 4th Indian Division.
     He was forced to return to India with a number of other Indian Army officers when General Wavell, ex Indian Army, was relieved of his command as British Commander-in-Chief, Middle East, by Prime Minister Churchill.
     Leonard was appointed Chief Instructor of the Indian Army's Tactical School. This was followed by his appointment in 1943 as Second in Command of the Combined Operations training centre at Madh Island, Bombay.
     In 1945, he was commanding the much larger Combined Operations training centre at Vizagapatam on India's east coast. It was from here that the Allied amphibious forces were to be launched for their invasion and recapture of Malaya from the Japanese. The surrender of Japan occurred three weeks before D-Day of this operation.
     Leonard and Beryl were divorced in 1946, and he married in 1947, Barbara Bousfield, who was serving in the Women's Royal Naval Service with Lord Mountbatten in South East Asia Command (SEAC) first in Delhi and then in Bombay. She joined Leonard at Vizagapatam shortly before India gained independence.
     Although offered promotion in India's new army Leonard retired, sickened and saddened by the communal brutality and horror accompanying the new country's independence. Leonard loved India and its people in a way that was particular to certain soldiers, civil servants and others from England who had lived in India. His interest in India's diverse peoples and the country's history and prehistory are recorded by the paper he presented to the Bombay Archaeological Society and his many perceptive photographs of Indian people, religious shrines and historical sites.
     Leonard and Barbara returned to England by way of Southern Rhodesia where their daughter Henrietta Elizabeth was born in March 1948. In England, they lived in Burton Latimer, Northamptonshire, quite close to Hargrave where Leonard had grown up. He then decided to requalify for a very different career, and after a course of study, qualified in Museology attaining the AMA designation and appointment as the founding curator of the Indian Army Museum at Sandhurst. He was an innovator of a new exhibition style in which the uniforms, regalia and items showing the Indian Army's history were displayed in all-glass cases and on walls with light used to maximum effect -- the whole display being spacious and interesting.
     Recognition of the Museum's success was demonstrated by the many donations and loans of treasured possessions. This appointment entailed Leonard and his family's moving to the village of Sandhurst where his second son, Beauchamp, was born in 1950.
     The success with the Indian Army museum led to Leonard being considered as curator of the proposed British Army museum, but the decision to start was delayed and he accepted an invitation in 1955 to be the curator of the Queen Victoria Museum in Salisbury, Southern Rhodesia instead. (Salisbury has been re-named Harare, and Southern Rhodesia is now named Zimbabwe). Within a short time, Leonard was having a similar success to that which he had had with the Indian Army museum. An important part of the post was Public Relations which he performed to such effect that people were bringing in to the museum many interesting artifacts and discovering new Rock Art sites. This was important to understanding the history of Southern Rhodesia.
     Leonard was knowledgeable about horses, and had been a good polo-player in India. Returning to England in 1960, he secured an important administrative post with the Horses and Ponies Protection Society inspecting riding schools. He organised a Bill through Parliament which enacted a law that ensured that these schools were licensed. He and Barbara finally retired to Stowe Longa, Huntingdonshire, also near Hargrave.
     Leonard was interested in the family history, discussing it with Walter Richard Pownall Boultbee in England, and with Gardner Boultbee of Canada whom he had met in 1938 while on leave in Australia. He corresponded with Gardner for some years, providing him with information about his own family.
     We think that his son Nicholas' thoughts about his father, which follow, add an extra dimension to the foregoing details of Leonard's life.
     "Leonard was an unconventional person born of Victorian parents some of whose values he shared while developing individualistic liberal views on a wide range of topics. While in India, he became interested in Buddhism which he reflected in his attitude to life. His thinking on some issues was well ahead of the times and quite untypical of a regular Army officer".