Gallipoli pilgrim ready for tears

A treasured 100-year-old watch is making a return trip to the battlefields of Gallipoli, 90 years after it was recovered from the body of a dead Anzac soldier.

Former Vietnam war medic Dennis Manson is taking the watch back to the place where his great uncle, Samuel Manson, died fighting the Turks on May 5, 1915 - a fortnight after the Anzac troops landed in a campaign to capture the peninsula, control the Dardanelles and open sea routes to the beleaguered southern Russia.

Samuel Manson's watch was passed to his brother, Ambrose Manson, who survived Gallipoli but was killed in action in Belgium in December 1917.

The watch was sent back to the family in New Zealand with Ambrose Manson's belongings.

Now it is heading back to Gallipoli, carried by another member of the Manson family, Dennis.

"It was given to me by my father and he told me it was used by Samuel Manson on Gallipoli," said Mr Manson, 57, who is heading to Gallipoli as part of an official party to commemorate Anzac Day's 90th anniversary.

Samuel Manson's body was found, unlike thousands of others who were never identified. He is buried in a British cemetery - one of 70 New Zealand soldiers, 11 Australians, two Indians and 1500 British soldiers.

Also carefully packed in Mr Manson's bags are several poppies from the Devonport RSA. The poppies have a special significance.

"I thought if I could find where Samuel is buried I will put a poppy on it and say to him, 'Well, here is your watch Samuel, it is in my care'," Mr Manson said.

Mr Manson expects emotion and tears on his pilgrimage.

"This watch means something to me. It will be very emotional," said Mr Manson, who faced a similar time several years ago when New Zealand Vietnam war veterans were welcomed home many years after that war ended.

Mr Manson's close friend, medic Gordon Watt, died in Vietnam when a bomb was detonated near a church.

"Tears came to my eyes because it meant a lot to me after I lost my friend."

- NZPA