Rizk Alexander Great War Story

The video for this story about Syrian-born New Zealand soldier Rizk Alexander screened on Newshub on 23 April 2017.

Originally from the Mount Lebanon area then part of the Ottoman province of Syria, Rizk Alexander had only been in New Zealand for three years when he decided to join the war effort. Very few Ottoman subjects joined the New Zealand forces during the war. From a Lebanese Christian family, Rizk had enlisted in the hope of being able to fight against the Ottomans at either Gallipoli or in the Middle East, but he was instead sent to the Western Front. He proved himself in the fighting but suffered gas poisoning which ended his war service and led to his death in 1924, aged just 27.

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