Chunuk Bair bell

Chunuk Bair bell

• Height  317 mm
• Width  387 mm
• Weight  44 kg
• Note  D#

The Chunuk Bair bell is one of eight in the Carillon which commemorates the Gallipoli campaign. Though named after one of the battles of the August offensive, the bell was given in memory of Roy Wilson Lambert, who died several months earlier during the initial landings at Gallipoli.

Roy Lambert

Roy Lambert was born in Wellington in 1890, the youngest of Elizabeth and William Lambert’s eight children. His father worked in insurance and the family moved to Auckland when he was still a young boy. He attended Auckland Grammar School and was a talented sportsman. After finishing school he worked for the large warehouse and manufacturing firm Macky, Logan and Caldwell Limited in Auckland.

In August 1914 Roy was among those men who signed up in the days immediately following the outbreak of war. He left with the Main Body, the first large group of New Zealanders to depart for overseas service in October 1914. He joined the Auckland Battalion and was soon promoted to corporal. A further promotion to sergeant followed in mid-April 1915. 

On 25 April, Roy participated in the invasion of Gallipoli. The fighting was intense and frantic as the Allied forces struggled to gain a foothold on the peninsula. Roy was one of the many casualties of the first day’s fighting, being killed in action attempting to reinforce a section of the landing force. A fellow soldier described Roy’s last moments: ‘During the desperate fight that followed the landing a section of the force got into a very tight corner and sent a message “For God’s sake, send us reinforcements”. Roy got the message, and without any hesitation, responded to the call of duty, racing at the head of his men up an incline to close quarters with the enemy. Bullets wounded Roy in three places … [the] last wound … proved fatal within a few minutes.’

A friend, Sergeant Kenneth Commons, wrote home to Roy’s family expressing his devastation: ‘I don’t know what I can write to you, only that I am heartbroken myself. Roy was the best friend I have ever known. Since the time we enlisted there has scarcely been an hour of leisure when we have not been together. … I wish I had been with Roy. … it is only the constant work which has enabled me to keep my mind on other things, and throughout the whole company there is no one more missed and grieved for than Roy.’ [1]

Roy’s body was never recovered. He is among those remembered on the memorial to the missing at Lone Pine Cemetery, Gallipoli. In 1926, his sisters and brothers gifted one of the bells for the Carillon in his memory.

Further information

Auckland War Memorial Museum Online Cenotaph record – Roy Lambert

Commonwealth War Graves Commission record – Roy Lambert

'Personal matters', Evening Post, 9 June 1915, p. 6

'Biographical sketches', Otago Daily Times, 22 June 1915, p. 6

'How Roy Lambert died', Auckland Star, 30 June 1915, p. 4

'An Aucklander's death', Press, 1 July 1915, p. 8