VC Action: Cyril Royston Guyton Bassett (3 January 1892 - 2 January 1983) was the first New Zealander to be awarded the VC in World War I when he was 23 years old, and a corporal in the New Zealand Divisional Signal Company, New Zealand Expeditionary Force.
Bassetts's first military service came via the Auckland College Rifles, a local volunteer unit, which he joined in 1909. In 1911 New Zealand abolished its volunteer system and replaced it with the Territorial Force and Bassett left the College Rifles to join a new Territorial unit, the Auckland Divisional Signals Company.
Within a week of the declaration of war in August 1914, Bassett volunteered for service with the New Zealand Expeditionary Force (NZEF) and joined the New Zealand Divisional Signal Company. He left New Zealand with the main body of the NZEF on 16 October 1914 arriving in Egypt some six weeks later.
After training in Egypt, Bassett and the rest of the New Zealand Divisional Signal Company first saw action during the 25 April landing at Gallipoli. He survived numerous battles up to and including Chunuk Bair, where he won his VC.
Bassett was one of the signallers in support of the attack by New Zealand, Gurkha and British soldiers on Chunuk Bair Ridge, Gallipoli. The New Zealanders achieved the ridge despite horrendous losses and after trying to hold it were dislodged.
On 7 August 1915 at Chunuk Bair Ridge, Gallipoli, Turkey, after the New Zealand Infantry Brigade had attacked and established itself on the ridge, Corporal Bassett, in full daylight and under continuous fire, succeeded in laying a telephone line from the old position to the new one on Chunuk Bair. He also did further gallant work in connection with the repair of telephone lines by day and night under heavy fire. He is quoted "I was so short that the bullets just passed over me".
He was evacuted from Gallipoli on 13 August 1915 with illness, and did not rejoin his unit until September 1916 in France. Bassett was wounded at Passchendaele in October 1917 and again at the Somme in March 1918. He was discharged from the Expeditionary Force in early 1919. At the end of the war he resumed his civilian career in a bank.
The outbreak of the Second World War saw Bassett recalled for military service with the New Zealand Army. He served in various posts with the home defence forces culminating in his promotion to the rank of lieutenant-colonel and his appointment as commander of Northern Military District Signals. As the war drew to a close, Bassett reverted to the reserve before once again being placed on the retired list in 1948. |
