As an intern with the History Department at Te Papa, I have been given the challenging task of researching the sitters who appear in a number of photographic portraits held in the collection.

Read more about the Berry & Co. collection

My task is to try to identify the soldiers who appear in these photographs, using military personnel files, reference books relating to uniform and badges of military regiments, and online databases and resources.  Unfortunately, apart from an image of the person, the only other information I have to go on is the person’s family name, which is handwritten on the top of each negative.

So far, this is a slow process, but I have had some success.  Following an existing tentative identification, I have managed to bring to light quite a lot of information about this striking gentleman, who I believe to be Charles Vandersluys, a British national who became a Sergeant Major serving in the New Zealand Expeditionary Force at home at Trentham Camp, but making some enemies along the way!  I am currently working on more research which includes the life of Vandersluys along with many of his contemporaries who were photographed by Berry & Co. in Wellington.

Charles Calab Vandersluys was born on the 22^ndAugust 1871 in Hanwell, Middlesex, England.  Despite his Dutch name, Vandersluys was British for at least two generations, and throughout his life often travelled under the name of ‘Berrold’ as he hated being referred to as a ‘Dutchman’.  His father was a soldier in the British Army, and later worked as a clerk in the Pension Office.

On 4^th September 1893, Vandersluys married Letitia Ayres in Dublin, before returning to England where he was employed as a Private in the Gordon Highlanders, a British Army infantry regiment drawn mainly from Scotland and the north of England.  Vandersluys served twelve years and 120 days with this regiment, including service during the second Boer War in South Africa.  See the image below for an example of what his Gordon Highlanders dress uniform would have looked like.  After peace was declared he was discharged on the 15^th September 1902.  He then joined section D of the Gordon Highlanders Reserve in January 1903.  Four years later, he completed his service but remained living in London where he was employed driving meat vans and buses.

In 1910, Vandersluys and his wife travelled to Buenos Aires, where, apart from occasional trips to England, they lived for around three years.  After returning to England in July 1914, they continued almost immediately on a voyage to Australia, taking a 3^rd class passage on the SS Ruahine, departing on the 10^th August 1914, under the name of Berrold.   Their son and three daughters remained in England.  Spending only six months in Australia, the couple moved on once again to New Zealand, where, within a few days, Vandersluys enlisted with the New Zealand Expeditionary Force.

Due to an attack of rheumatic fever, Vandersluys was judged to be unfit for active service.  However he was fit to serve at home, and worked at Trentham Camp, as a member of the Army and of the Military Police.  He was promoted during his service, earning the rank of Sergeant Major and a large amount of respect amongst his colleagues.

However, a case was brought against him in August 1918 by two recently discharged Privates, Fisher and Boosey.  Private Fisher had recently been arrested for assaulting Vandersluys, although the man’s statement maintained that the Sergeant had in fact started a fight with him, and enlisted the help of two corporals to give false witness statements.  He had then, along with his friend Private Boosey, been discharged as medically unfit to serve, in Fisher’s case due to shell-shock and mental disturbance.

The two men decided to report that on the occasion of Fisher bringing Boosey to the military office to enlist, Vandersluys had made a disloyal remark, saying “The Germans are going to give the British all they asked for”.  After investigation, the detective in charge of the case recommended that no action be taken, as Vandersluys argued that his words had been misquoted and taken out of context, and there was no further evidence to suggest a disloyalty to the Allied forces.

While the two men responsible for the accusation may well have held a grudge against the Sergeant, this demonstrates the level of paranoia and suspicion which was present during the war years, which was particularly high towards ‘aliens’ or those with foreign sounding names!   Many of these people spent the war years on an island in Wellington harbour – click on the object below to read more about their story.

Look out for more blog posts as I uncover more stories related to the soldiers who appear in the Berry & Co. collection photographs.