Cyril Royston Guyton Bassett VC (3 January 1892 – 9 January 1983)
Born in Auckland, Bassett was a bank worker when the First World War began. A member of New Zealand's Territorial Force, he volunteered for service abroad with the New Zealand Expeditionary Force (NZEF) and was posted to the New Zealand Divisional Signal Company as a sapper. He saw action on the opening day of the Gallipoli Campaign, and it was during the Battle of Chunuk Bair that he performed the actions that led to his award of the VC.
The citation for Bassett's Victoria Cross read as follows:
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. 29238, 15 October 1915
Medically evacuated due to sickness shortly after the battle, he later served on the Western Front and finished the war as a 2Lt. He returned to the banking profession but was recalled to active duty during the Second World War. He served on the Home Front and by the time he was taken off active duty in December 1943, he had been promoted to the rank of LTCOL and was commander of signals in the Northern Military District. When he retired from his banking career he became a Justice of the Peace in Devonport. He died in 1983 at the age of 91.