Cyril Bassett

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Cyril Bassett
First World War

Second World War

AwardsVictoria Cross

Cyril Royston Guyton Bassett,

First World War
.

Born in

Devonport
. He died in 1983 at the age of 91.

Early life

Cyril Royston Guyton Bassett was born on 3 January 1892 in the

Territorial Force, the part-time military reserve, and was posted to the Auckland College Rifles. Two years later he transferred to the Auckland Divisional Signal Company.[3]

First World War

When the

New Zealand Military Forces. Bassett was not particularly tall and was initially rejected on the grounds of height. He persisted with his attempt to enlist,[3] and joined the New Zealand Expeditionary Force (NZEF) as a sapper in the Corps of New Zealand Engineers, assigned to the New Zealand Divisional Signal Company.[2]

Gallipoli

Bassett embarked with the main body of the NZEF for the Middle East in October 1914. Initially based in Egypt, after a period of training, he landed at ANZAC Cove on 25 April 1915, the opening day of the Gallipoli campaign. Along with the other signallers of his unit, he was immediately set to work laying communication lines to the headquarters of the New Zealand and Australian Division.[2][4] In early May, he, along with two other signallers, was noted in consideration for a gallantry award for their efforts in laying telephone wires while under heavy fire.[3][5]

Later in the campaign, Bassett was promoted to corporal. In August 1915, a series of offensives against Turkish positions along the Gallipoli front was planned to break the stalemate that had developed since the initial landing. On 7 August, the New Zealand Infantry Brigade attacked Chunuk Bair, a prominent hill overlooking the battlefield. The battle lasted for three days. Chunuk Bair was captured by the brigade's Wellington Infantry Battalion on the second day, during which Bassett, in command of a section of five other signallers of his unit, laid down and maintained telephone lines between brigade headquarters and the front lines.[3] Working on the exposed slopes leading up to Chunuk Bair, he braved continuous gunfire during this time armed with only a revolver and a bayonet. A bullet struck his boot and two more passed through the fabric of his tunic during the fighting, but he was not wounded.[1]

After the battle, Basset's name, along with those of the other five signallers of his section, was collected by Major Arthur Temperley of brigade headquarters, who nominated Bassett to receive the Victoria Cross (VC).[3] A few days later, Bassett was evacuated from Gallipoli due to poor health. Suffering from dysentery, he spent several months recuperating at a hospital in Leicester and it was here that he was advised of his VC award.[1] Instituted in 1856, the VC is the highest gallantry award that can be bestowed on a soldier of the British Empire.[6] The citation read:

No. 4/515 Corporal Cyril Royston Guyton Bassett, New Zealand Divisional Signal Company. For most conspicuous bravery and devotion to duty on the Chunuk Bair ridge in the Gallipoli Peninsula on 7th August, 1915. After the New Zealand Infantry Brigade had attacked and established itself on the ridge, Corporal Bassett, in full daylight and under a continuous and heavy fire, succeeded in laying a telephone line from the old position to the new one on Chunuk Bair. He has subsequently been brought to notice for further excellent and most gallant work connected with the repair of telephone lines by day and night under heavy fire.

— The London Gazette, No. 29328, 15 October 1915[7]

The citation incorrectly refers to Bassett's actions on 7 August; it was not until the following day that the Wellington Infantry Battalion captured Chunuk Bair. His VC was the first to be awarded to a soldier of the NZEF and he was the only one to receive it for actions during the Gallipoli Campaign.

King George V presented him the VC at an investiture held at Buckingham Palace on 3 February 1916.[8] Bassett later remarked of the VC action, "I reckon there must be some guardian angel looking after me, especially as one man was shot dead in front of me and another wounded just behind."[9]

Western Front

Sergeant Cyril Royston Guyton Bassett eating a meal in the trenches, 1917.

In June 1916, Bassett rejoined his unit, by then on the

Brigadier-General Harry Fulton.[11] On extracting himself from the rubble of the headquarters, Bassett immediately set about reestablishing communications for which he was recommended for, but was not awarded, the Military Cross.[1][12] With the war now over, he returned to New Zealand in late 1918 as the New Zealand Division started demobilising and was formally discharged from the NZEF in 1919.[3]

Interwar period and Second World War

Bassett returned to his banking career after the war, managing branches of the National Bank in Auckland and later in Paeroa. He retained a link to the military, rejoining the Territorial Force shortly after his discharge from the NZEF but was placed on the retired list of officers in 1929.[2] Three years previously, he had married Ruth Louise Grant;[13] the couple had two children. By 1939 he was the manager of the Auckland Town Hall branch of the National Bank.[2]

Called up for the National Military Reserve as a result of the outbreak of the Second World War, Bassett was placed on active duty in 1941 as a captain in the Royal New Zealand Corps of Signals (RNZSigs). He was not required to serve overseas and instead he worked in signals on the Home Front in New Zealand. Promoted to major in February 1942, his active war service ended in December 1943.[3] By then he had achieved the rank of lieutenant colonel, and was commander of signals in the Northern Military District.[2]

Later life and legacy

a plaque of a grave headstone
Bassett's grave in the cemetery at North Shore Memorial Park

Bassett returned to the National Military Reserve from which he retired in 1948. As a civilian, he resumed his banking profession. He retired in 1952 but remained active in the community of

pine tree, reportedly cultivated from a seedling taken from the area of the Battle of Lone Pine at Gallipoli, in front of the museum as part of an Anzac Day service.[17]

According to his daughter, Bassett rarely spoke about his achievements,[18] and she did not learn of her father's award until she studied Gallipoli at primary school. He was modest and expressed embarrassment at being the only New Zealand VC recipient of the Gallipoli Campaign.[3] He commented that "when I got my medal I was disappointed to find I was the only New Zealander to get one at Gallipoli, because hundreds of Victoria Crosses should have been awarded there."[9]

Bassett remains the only New Zealand signaller to have been awarded the VC and was a lifetime member of the Corps of Signals Association. In recognition of Bassett's rank at the time of his award, the Bassett Memorial Trophy is awarded annually to the most outstanding corporal in the RNZSigs. The trophy is a statue of Bassett on Chunuk Bair.

ANZAC Day commemorations.[19]

Notes

  1. ^ a b c d e f Snelling 1999, pp. 181–187.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barber, Laurie. "Bassett, Cyril Royston Guyton 1892–1983". Dictionary of New Zealand Biography. Ministry for Culture and Heritage. Archived from the original on 30 January 2018. Retrieved 28 December 2012.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Harper & Richardson 2007, pp. 113–118.
  4. ^ Ellis 1968, p. 7.
  5. ^ Ellis 1968, p. 12.
  6. ^ O'Shea 2000, pp. 558–559.
  7. ^ "No. 29328". The London Gazette. 15 October 1915. p. 10154.
  8. ^ "New Zealanders Decorated". Evening Post. Vol. XCI, no. 29. 4 February 1916. Retrieved 25 February 2018.
  9. ^ a b "Cyril Bassett wins VC on Chunuk Bair". NZ History. Ministry of Culture & Heritage. Archived from the original on 14 February 2019. Retrieved 8 September 2019.
  10. ^ "While Doing Their Duty: Casualties at the Front". Evening Post. Vol. XCIV, no. 96. 20 October 1917. Archived from the original on 3 March 2018. Retrieved 3 March 2018.
  11. ^ Austin 1924, p. 299.
  12. ^ Ellis 1968, p. 67.
  13. ^ "Weddings". New Zealand. Vol. LXIII, no. 19230. 20 January 1926. Archived from the original on 3 March 2018. Retrieved 3 March 2018.
  14. ^ "Coronation Medal" (PDF). Supplement to the New Zealand Gazette. No. 37. 3 July 1953. pp. 1021–1035. Retrieved 14 April 2021.
  15. ^ "Burial record for Cyril Royston Guyton Bassett". Auckland Council. Archived from the original on 3 March 2018. Retrieved 25 February 2018.
  16. ^ "Medal, decoration". Auckland War Memorial Museum. Archived from the original on 1 March 2018. Retrieved 22 November 2015.
  17. ^ Wilcox, Mike; Spencer, David (May 2007). "Feature: Uncommon Exotic Species Stand up the Real Anzac Lone Pine of Gallipoli" (PDF). NZ Journal of Forestry. 52 (1): 5. Retrieved 12 October 2019.
  18. ^ Eames, David (24 April 2009). "Gallipoli hero downplayed his achievement". The New Zealand Herald. Archived from the original on 23 September 2018. Retrieved 26 September 2011.
  19. ^ Returned Services Association (11 November 2009). "Honouring New Zealand's only Gallipoli VC". Scoop. Archived from the original on 27 February 2018. Retrieved 26 February 2018.

References

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