BURY’S Fusilier Museum has been given £18,000 to commission a piece of music to commemorate the centenary of the Gallipoli landings.

The 100th anniversary of Gallipoli, where the Lancashire Fusiliers famously won “six VCs before breakfast”, will be marked next year.

The funding, from the Arts Council, will pay for the commission by the composer Martin Ellerby, as well as a performance of the piece at the 2015 centenary celebrations.

The performance will also coincide with the launch of a groundbreaking exhibition at the museum which will, hopefully, include all six Victoria Crosses on display in one place.

Mr Ellerby has written for most musical forms, including symphonies, concertos and a large scale requiem for choir and orchestra.

His music has been broadcast and recorded all over the world by leading ensembles and performed at many prestigious venues.

He said: ”I shall be creating a composition that will fulfil the many aspects we all wish it to encompass.

“These will include a suite of several movements which can be performed in a concert environment, use extracts as part of the display in the exhibition at the museum and a march which is available in a separate orchestration and can be performed by a marching band.”

Helen Smith, museum general manager, said: “Gallipoli is such an important event in the history of the Lancashire Fusiliers that we wanted to do something special to mark the centenary which would also provide a legacy moving forward.

“This funding has enabled us to do just that and we look forward to working with Martin on the commemorative piece.”

The museum recently received funding from the Gallipoli Association to work with Touchstones Museum in nearby Rochdale on a joint education project which will see children researching the roles and stories of local soldiers who served at Gallipoli.

l A free Gallipoli commem-orative talk will be held at the museum on Saturday at 10.30am.

Speakers will include Pam and Ken Linge, founders of the Thiepval Project, who have spent years investigating and creating a database to commemorate some of the 72,000 men listed on the Thiepval Memorial in France.

There will also be a talk by Martin Purdy, an academic historian from Ramsbottom and co-writer of The Gallipoli Oak.