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Jeep reveals family's history

Posted on 24 August, 2016

Sherryl Leeson enjoyed a blast from the past when she opened up the motoring supplement of the NZ Herald recently and found a picture of her father in a story relating to Jeep's 75th Anniversary. The photo captured the NZ Prime Minster, at the time, Peter Fraser and the leader of the NZ armed forces, Lieutenant-General Bernard Freyburg being driven by Leeson's father, Ted Leeson. “We’d heard the stories from Dad about being Lieutenant-General Bernard Freyberg’s driver and how he met Peter Fraser, but we’d never seen a picture." she says. During the battles in Africa and Italy, Leeson's father was recruited as Freyburg's driver and at the time the picture was taken, he was driving the prime minister on his tour of the battlefield, to thank the NZ troops. The photo was captured by photographer George Frederick Kaye and preserved by the National Library of New Zealand, along with film of the prime minister's visit to Cassino. “When we were looking at the history of Jeep we knew we had to talk about its unique war-time record as it was how the company came into being,” explains David Smitherman, chief executive officer of Jeep’s New Zealand importer. “We were thrilled to discover that New Zealand and Jeep have been together almost from day one of the company and its most famous car.”