NEW ZEALAND V.C.’S

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXX, Issue 5498, 8 November 1929, Page 2

NEW ZEALAND V.C.’S

GOVERNMENT HOUSE DINNER. INVIITATION ISSUED. His Excellency the Governor-Gen-eral (Sir Charles Fergusson) has invited the seven holders of the Victoria Cross resident in New Zealand to dine with him at Government House next Saturday night, when the Prince of Wales’s dinner to the V.C.’s of the Empire will be held in London. The names of the seven are :— Captain L. W. Andrew, V.C., Wellington. Lieutenant R. S. Judson, V.C., D.C.M., M.M., New Plymouth. Lieutenant S. Frickleton, V.C., Wellington. Lieutenant C. R. G. Bassett, V.C., Paeroa. Lieutenant J. G. Grant, V.C., Hawera. Sergeant H. J. Laurent, V. C., Hawera. Private J. Crichton, V.C.. Auckland. The Government will bear the expenses of transport to Wellington, and the visiting holders of the decoration will be the guests of the Government at the Royal Oak Hotel during their stay in Wellington. After dining with His Excellency the V.C.’s will attend the annual reunion of the Wellington Regiment, which will be held on the same evening. Mr Bassett will leave, for Wellington this afternoon to attend the dinner, and will return to Paeroa on Monday. The award of the Victoria Cross to Mr Bassett appeared thus in the “London Gazette” :— “His Majesty the King has been pleased to award the Victoria Cross to the undermentioned : No. 4/515 Corporal Cyril Royston Gayton Basset, New Zealand Divisional Signal Coy., ‘for most conspicuous bravery and devotion to duty on the Chunuk Bair ridge, in the Gallipoli Peninsula, on the 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 tele-phone-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 undpr heavy fire.”