Descendant of first New Zealander on Gallipoli beach receives Youth Award

AFS Intercultural Programmes New Zealand media release
19 February 2010

AFS Intercultural Programmes New Zealand has awarded the 2010 Gallipoli Youth Award to two young students from New Zealand and Turkey with close connections to ANZAC soldiers who served at Gallipoli.

AFS is the largest organisation in the world to facilitate non-fee-paying cultural exchanges.

The award, which is run by AFS in partnership with the Royal New Zealand RSA, runs from March to May 2010. It involves a six-week exchange including homestays with each other’s families, attendance at local schools and participation in ANZAC and Turkish commemorative services.

The students will document their exchange experiences via an online blog, where they will also post photos and their winning presentations.

The award is only eligible to students who have a blood relative who was involved in the Gallipoli Campaign of the First World War.

The New Zealand recipient is 16-year-old Devon Francis of Auckland, a Year 12 student at Albany Senior High School. Her great-great grandfather, Lieutenant Colonel Edmund Bowler began a long military career in 1894 and was serving in the Southland Mounted Rifles when he volunteered for overseas service in 1914.

One of four Military Beach Landing Officers, Lt Col Bowler was the first New Zealander to land on the beach at Anzac Cove on 25 April 1915, and the only landing officer to survive. He served for four months in Gallipoli as Commandant of Anzac Cove and was invalided to England in September 1915.

In letters home, Lt Col Bowler described the conditions he experienced during his time on Gallipoli as “hell on earth” and strongly condemned the Dardanelles leadership. Both in England and on his return to New Zealand he became a fierce advocate, despite poor health, for the men who died or were scarred because of their service.

Devon Francis describes her family’s respect and pride for her great-great-grandfather as immense.

“Family to me is the most important part of my life. My great-great-grandfather’s love for his family is so evident in his letters and the legacy of this love has been handed down each generation. To see the beach where he felt the heartache of death but was able to give support, friendship and love to his fellow soldiers would make me very proud,” says Devon Francis.

The Turkish student awarded the 2010 Gallipoli Youth Award is 16-year-old Aytuna Yalcin, from Çanakkale in the Dardanelles. Her great-grandfather, Halil İbrahim, fought in the Dardanelles for the Ottoman Empire during the Gallipoli Campaign. He was fatally wounded during the war and died shortly afterwards.

AFS has organised over 10,000 cultural exchanges throughout 52 countries worldwide. The exchanges have a family focus and are based on the AFS mission of peace through friendship and cultural understanding.

The Gallipoli Youth Award is particularly special, says Tony Calvert, AFS New Zealand Communications Manager.

“Our origins lie in the American Field Service, a volunteer ambulance corps formed in World War I and active through World War II,” says Tony Calvert.

“AFS ambulance drivers believed that personal interaction and friendships between people built international peace and understanding.

“The sharing of cultures that the 2010 award recipients will experience, and their own strong family connections with brave First World War Gallipoli veterans, makes the Gallipoli Youth Award exchange a significant and poignant event.

“The award is a true celebration of the spirit of ANZAC and New Zealand’s bond of brotherhood with Turkey.”

Devon Francis’ grandmother, Elizabeth Francis, was also an AFS cultural exchange student in 1953-54, and has been a long-standing volunteer for AFS.

"I was enormously privileged to have had the opportunity to take part at such an early stage in the development of programmes involving students in the lives, cultures and languages of other peoples and to have continued since as a volunteer in this inspirational organisation," says Elizabeth Francis.

"As a family, we feel proud and honoured that Devon has won the Gallipoli Youth Award. We hope that her visit to Turkey will give her an appreciation of Turkish history and culture, and a more in-depth understanding of the details of the Gallipoli Campaign about which her great-great-grandfather wrote before his landing on Anzac Cove, and then during his time there as Commandant."

Veterans’ Affairs Minister, Hon Judith Collins, will present Devon Francis with the 2010 Gallipoli Youth Award at a special assembly to be held at Albany Senior High School on Fri 5 March at 1.30pm.