Heroic Main Body and First Day Lander Gallipoli British War Medal to 12/788 Corporal Donald Bennett Lane, 16th Waikato Company, Auckland Infantry Battalion, N.Z.E.F.

Killed in Action on the First Day during the Battle of the Landing 25th April 1915.

There is a huge amount of information detailing Donald's actions on the First Day and there is no doubt that he should have been posthumously decorated (but there were no officers present having all been killed). There is a stirring account of his actions in the accompanying file.

In brief, Donald Lane was amongst a group of Aucklanders and Australians inextricably mixed together and stubbornly refusing to give ground just out to the right of Quinn's and Courtenay's. The Turks were counterattacking in overwhelming numbers. There was no question of Battalion or Company command. The natural leaders of men took control of whatever men they found to hand and built up a firing line for their immediate front. Don was shot in the forearm early on in the fighting and was again hit two hours later in the thigh. He refused to leave the fighting and kept his section together and going forward for some four hours after receiving his first wound. He was in the process of leading another bayonet charge of Aucklanders and Australians when a third bullet hit him in the forehead killing him instantly. The remaining members of his company said they never witnessed such bravery in a man for the rest of the campaign.

Donald is also written up in the Australian unit War Diary and copies of this are in the file.

Donald was 5' 6" tall and weighed 70 kilograms. He was 21 years old.

Also included is a range of other documents and photos.