With the 100th anniversary of the 25 April 1915 Gallipoli landings only a few days away, It is worth considering.—
Who was the first New Zealand soldier to land on Gallipoli on the 25th?
Thanks to Frank Glen’s most excellent book, Bowler of Gallipoli, the answer is the Commanding Officer of the 2nd Reinforcements, Lieutenant-Colonel Edmund Robert Bowler was the first New Zealand soldier to land on Gallipoli.
Lieutenant-Colonel Edmund Bowler’s appointment as one of four Beach Landing Officers (BLO), placed him as responsible for the No. 1 section, the northern-most section of the beach.
Glen’s research places Bowler arriving ashore at 4.30am with the first troops from the Australian infantry, who were only preceded by the Australian covering party.
(New Zealand troops arrived approx. eight hours later)
Interestingly Bowler’s great-great-grand-daughter has been awarded the Gallipoli youth award from the AFS Intercultural programme.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/loca...-to-Anzac-Cove
It could be considered that the first New Zealander ashore was Bernard Freyberg VC., who on the evening of 24 April 1915, won his first DSO when he famously swam ashore at Bulair and set off flares to divert Turkish attention from the Gallipoli landings.
Firstly, Freyberg was not born in New Zealand, he was born in Richmond, Surrey, England on 21 March 1889, and moved to New Zealand with his parents at the age of two.
Freyberg’s military history is said to have stated with “school cadets at Wellington College (1897 to 1904)” and “from January 1913 served as a lieutenant in a senior cadet company.”
Christopher Pugsley, author of the Gallipoli the New Zealand story, mentions Freyberg served as a second lieutenant with the 6th Hauraki Regiment until 1914.
Secondly, Freyberg left Wellington for San Francisco in March 1914.—
“After some weeks of indecision, Freyberg went south to Mexico, and may have been involved in the civil war then raging in that country. Upon hearing of the outbreak of war in Europe in August 1914, however, he immediately set off for England.
Freyberg secured a commission in the newly formed Royal Naval Division’s Hood Battalion. He was gazetted as a temporary lieutenant in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, and given command of a company. By September 1914 he was on the Belgian front.”
Although Freyberg has claim to having lived most of his life in New Zealand, he was not a member of the New Zealand Expeditionary Forces during World War One.