Students given chance to win Gallipoli trip

Ninety-one years after the end of the "war to end all wars", secondary school students are being offered a trip to Gallipoli as a prize in a national speech competition.

The Returned and Service Association and National Bank have chosen today, Armistice Day marking the end of World War 1, to launch the Cyril Bassett VC Speech Competition.

Year 12 and 13 students would be invited to write a speech about New Zealanders who went to war.

The competition was named after the first New Zealander to win a Victoria Cross for bravery in World War 1.

Corporal Bassett braved intense enemy fire at Gallipoli several times to repair communications lines.

He was the only New Zealand soldier to win a VC at Gallipoli .

Veterans Affairs Minister Judith Collins was to launch the competition at a commemoration event in Wellington today, to be attended by Cpl Bassett's daughter and granddaughter and representatives of his regiment, the New Zealand Divisional Signals Company.

Cpl Bassett was a long-serving staff member and branch manager at the National Bank. He died in 1983.

Cpl B assett won his VC not for one action but several when he repeatedly went out to repair communications lines at Chunuk Bair on the Gallipoli Peninsula.

Historians said the lines were cut again and again then repaired again and again by Cpl Bassett under heavy fire from the Turkish defenders.

He narrowly escaped being killed when bullets clipped his clothing, one going straight through his collar and the other tearing off his right-hand pocket.

He later said: "It was just that I was so short that the bullets passed over me", but was always reluctant to talk about his VC.

"All my mates ever got were wooden crosses," he was reported to have said.

Regional competitions will be held in the lead-up to Anzac Day next year and the national winner will win a trip to commemorations at Gallipoli on Anzac Day.

The launch of the speech competition was one of several events planned to mark Armistice Day.

Governor General Sir Anand Satyanand, and Lady Susan Satyanand were to attend a commemorative service at the National War Memorial in Wellington where a dawn to dusk vigil was held over the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior.

Armistice Day commemorates the armistice signed between the Allies and Germany on November 11 1918, when hostilities ceased at 11am.

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