Krithia bell

Krithia bell

• Height  340 mm
• Width  420 mm
• Weight  53.5 kg
• Note  C#

The ‘Krithia’ bell is dedicated to the memory of Ateo Frandi, a Wellingtonian of Italian birth.

Ateo Frandi

Born in Pisa in 1874, Frandi was still a toddler when his family emigrated to New Zealand. The family eventually settled in Thorndon, Wellington and were active in their new community. Frandi was a member of the Garibaldi Club and served for more than 20 years in the volunteers and the Territorial Force. He was working as a piano tuner for DIC, a national chain of department stores, when war broke out.

Frandi was among those who enlisted in the first weeks of the war in August 1914. He became a captain in the Wellington Battalion and went overseas at the end of the year. He arrived in Egypt at the end of January 1915 and spent the next three months training with the New Zealand forces.

In April 1915, Frandi participated in the Gallipoli landings. He survived the frantic first days of fighting above Anzac Cove, but was killed a fortnight later during the Second Battle of Krithia, near the southern tip of the peninsula. He probably lost his life on 8 May while taking part in one of the ill-fated attacks across the Daisy Patch, an area of open ground between the New Zealand and Turkish lines.

Frandi’s body was never recovered. His name is among 179 listed on the New Zealand memorial to the missing at Twelve Tree Copse Cemetery in Helles, Türkiye.

In 1926, Italia Corich, a widow with two daughters and the sole beneficiary of Frandi’s will gave the ‘Krithia’ bell in her brother’s memory. The bell is named for the disastrous battle in which Frandi died. It is one of eight bells named to commemorate the Gallipoli campaign.

Further information:

Auckland War Memorial Museum Online Cenotaph record – Ateo Frandi
Commonwealth War Graves Commission record – Ateo Frandi