Edmund Bassett in his army uniform, was killed overseas in 1917 and buried in a Belgian cemetery.
Edmund Bassett in his army uniform, was killed overseas in 1917 and buried in a Belgian cemetery.
The name Edmund Bassett is inscribed on a gravestone at Dannevirke Settlers Cemetery.
But the remains of the former Weber resident lie thousands of kilometres away, at Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery in Belgium.
His youngest granddaughter, Ann Berry, will be talking about her grandfather during a walk of the DannevirkeSettlers Cemetery on Sunday.
Ann says when her mother died, she was going through some of her mother’s belongings and found a bank bag which contained letters written by her grandfather to his wife Alice.
Alice (nee Layzell), grew up in England and came out to New Zealand for a wedding.
In one letter home, around 1916, he talked of spending time with his eldest son, Teddy, who he imagined would help his dad with work.
Edmund wrote of his hope of being home by Christmas the following year, in time for his wife’s birthday.
“Then we will have a big feed of lamb and green peas. Or shall we have a big stuffed turkey?”
Edmund Bassett's diary has been kept by his family.
He was wounded on October 15, 1916 and wrote to his wife that he was “killing time” telling her he would post the letter when he got to “Blighty”.
“We have had a dinkum smack at the old Hun and at last they stopped me just before we got to their third line in the trenches.”
He told her how he had been taken to a tent and had to walk for about two miles (3.2km) with the aid of two men.
A diary of a soldier who never returned home from World War I. Edmund Bassett's story will be among those told during a walk at Dannevirke Settlers Cemetery.
Edmund wrote of being “carried, trained and motored” to Walton-on-Thames where there was a hospital in which New Zealand troops could be treated.
He was awarded the Military Medal for acts of gallantry on October 23.
A year later came tragedy.
A captain, who was with him at the time in November 1917, wrote to Alice telling her what happened.
He wrote that they were on the front lines “when a German machine-gunner detected us”.
“The wound received while not painful was very dangerous and as soon as it was dark enough to be safe, I sent him out with eight stretcher bearers to the regimental aid post.
“There he was attended by the regiment medical officer and passed a good night.”
A page in Edmund Bassett's diary gave an address, should the worst happen, where his diary should be sent.
The doctor had hopes of Edmund pulling through, but he died on November 23.
He was 31.
Three years after his death, a monument to fallen soldiers was unveiled at Weber and the Military Medal was handed to his widow.
