Gallipoli veteran’s lost medals returned to great-grandson for Anzac Day

A set of long-lost World War I medals will once again be worn at the Anzac Day dawn service in Auckland today, for the first time in more than 40 years. A Gallipoli veteran who led an all-Kiwi bugle team in London at the first Anzac Day Commemoration in 1916 will be honoured by his great-grandson at the Auckland Cenotaph today. A member of the Auckland Mounted Rifles, Alfred Blanks fought in the Battle of Chunuk Bair, where his regiment suffered heavy losses.

Rising to the rank of corporal, he later served in France and was discharged in September 1918 after being shot in the shoulder..