At a time when young lives are at risk in the Middle East, young lives of an earlier generation were being remembered at Winchester College.

Forty-five members of the Gallipoli Association gathered with their chairman, Capt Christopher Fagan and his wife, Mary, the Lord Lieutenant.

The association was set up in 1967 in order that veterans could meet with one another. The last of these have now died. Before they did, they lived to see a memorial erected in the crypt of St Paul's Cathedral, unveiled by the Duke of Edinburgh in 1995.

The fund-raising for the memorial far exceeded expectations and it was possible for the association, now 1,000-strong worldwide, to set up a bursary.

This allows for two young people each year to visit the Dardanelles to study a part of World War I which was perceived as an abysmal defeat, yet which engendered supreme courage and heroism.

Last year, the recipients were Rurik Jutting (now in the sixth form at Winchester) and Chris Geering, now at Oxford, who made a fascinating presentation of their visit, findings and opinions, viewed from a distance of 88 years.

Before the talk, a wreath was laid at the memorial of Lt-Col C H M Doughty-Wylie, a Wykehamist awarded a posthumous VC for his heroism during the landings at Helles on April 25th, 1915.

Col Michael Hickey, of Winchester, a military historian, told of Wylie's deep respect for the Turks and they for him. When he went into action at Sedd el Bahr, he carried only his stick, as he did not wish to kill his friends. The Turks refused to give up his body for burial in a war grave and he lies where he fell, a friend of their nation.

Wykehamist, Sir Harold Walker, whose grandfather had been at Gallipoli, laid the wreath.