The Tauranga Hockey team in 1908. Federick Dodson was second from the right in the second row.
Frederick Hugh Dodson was Tauranga's first Gallipoli casualty.
He was also among the first New Zealand soldiers to land at Anzac Cove 100 years ago today.
Lieutenant Dodson died after just two hours fighting on the rugged Turkish peninsula, one of at least 124 New Zealanders to perish on the first day of the costly campaign.
A comrade who witnessed his death called him "a hero to the last", saying he continued to fire at the enemy even as he collapsed.
Lieutenant Dodson was born in Hamilton but lived in Tauranga before the war and was a well-loved member of the Bay community.
He was 23 when killed, and his great-niece - who has inherited his war medals - says his death devastated his last remaining sibling.
"It was a huge shock to her that he died," Christine Sharman told the Bay of Plenty Times Weekend.
"She never really got over it."
After a difficult search, the Bay of Plenty Times Weekend traced Mrs Sharman to her home on Auckland's North Shore this week. Mrs Sharman's grandmother, Edna Armit, was Lieutenant Dodson's sister.
Lieutenant Dodson was born in 1891, Edna in 1894, and they had a third sibling, a girl, who died in 1909.
"Her brother died and her sister had died," says Mrs Sharman. "She was left an only child. It was devastating."
Mrs Sharman says her grandmother was withdrawn and could not bring herself to talk about her brother's death.
"It was sort of put away. It was too raw."
Mrs Sharman, who is in her 60s, did not know the details of her great-uncle's death until our interview and fell silent while listening to extracts of newspaper reports from 1915.
"It makes it more real," she said. "It's quite illuminating."
Mrs Sharman plans to attend the dawn service at the Auckland War Memorial Museum cenotaph today but will not be wearing her great-uncle's medals. They are stored in a vault for safekeeping.
Her uncle, Tony Armit, who is Lieutenant Dodson's nephew, said the Gallipoli campaign was a disaster for all the young men who went.
"The guys went for adventure," the 82-year-old said. "They went there, they got shot. When you're 18, 19, 20, you don't think of getting killed."
By the time the campaign ended, more than 130,000 men had died, including 2779 New Zealanders.
Lieutenant Dodson served in the Auckland Infantry Battalion, 6th (Hauraki) Company, and a letter written by a fellow Hauraki Company soldier reveals the harrowing speed of his death at Gallipoli.
"Sunday, the 25th April, was our first day in action, and the horror of that day will always remain fresh in my memory," wrote Private RH Good of Northcote.
"Lieutenant Dodson was killed two hours after we faced the Turks. He was a hero to the last."
Private Good's letter, written from the Palace Hotel Hospital at Alexandria, also revealed that Lieutenant Dodson's end was as dramatic as it was swift.
"After he fell back wounded, he got up on his knees and emptied his revolver into the enemy, and then fell back dead."
Private Good went on to say, "over half the Hauraki Company are killed or woundedMen were falling all around me."
Private Good's account was published in The New Zealand Herald and Auckland Star in July 1915.
Lieutenant Dodson's parents lived in Takapuna and the Auckland Star report, on July 6, 1915, carried the headline, "A hero to the last empties revolver into enemy while dying."
The report said Private Good's letter dispelled uncertainty about the date of Lieutenant Dodson's death, which his official war records state as "Killed in Action Dardanelles between 25th and 29th April 1915".
The Star report was replicated in the Thames Star and Ohinemuri Gazette, based in areas where Lieutenant Dodson's parents had farmed in the 1890s before shifting to Auckland.
The Bay of Plenty Times had already mourned Lieutenant Dodson, reporting his death on May 4, 1915, with the headline "Tauranga's First Loss".
The following day it published a long, sombre obituary.
"The news of Lieutenant Dodson's death has cast a gloom over the town," the obituary reads.
"Yesterday the flags on the public buildings in town were half-mastered in memory of [the] deceased."
During his seven years in Tauranga, Lieutenant Dodson was an auctioneer at the New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency Company.
The obituary paints a picture of a respected, sporting young man with a high level of involvement in the local community.
"Mr Dodson's manly and unassuming qualities won the esteem of all with whom he came in contact," the obituary says.
"In the local realm of sport his death leaves a gap that will indeed be hard to fill."
Mrs Sharman says she grew up knowing her great-uncle was a keen yachtsman, and the obituary speaks of his involvement in this and other sports.
"For several seasons he was a member of the local representative hockey team and was regarded as one of the finest exponents of the game in the Bay of Plenty. He was an ardent boating enthusiast and for some years was part owner of the well-known launch Coy "[And] for several years he acted as secretary to the Tauranga Rugby Union, his work in the cause of football earning the heartiest appreciation of the Union executive, the public, and players."
The obituary says Lieutenant Dodson was posted to the 6th (Hauraki) Regiment when compulsory service was introduced in 1911.
"He at once displayed a keen interest in his work and showed great promise, which led to his promotion from the ranks of Colour-sergeant of his company."
A year later, he was promoted to acting second lieutenant and shortly afterwards became a lieutenant and received his commission.
"He then took charge of the Tauranga Platoon and filled the command with great credit up to the time of his appointment in the main Expeditionary Force in August last."
Lieutenant Dodson left for war on October 16, 1914.
The obituary ends by saying, "the people in this district will join in extending their heartfelt sympathy to a brave New Zealander, who so ungrudgingly gave his life in the service of his King and country".