Photo Collection - Canterbury Infantry Battalion

[nigelkeay]

Greetings. My grandfather was at Gallipoli in 1915. I've become increasingly interested in his personal experience and the broader events while he was away from NZ. I'm in the process of scanning his collection of 200 or so photos and have started putting these on a part of my website: dslk.nigelkeay.com/anzac.htm I've just found out that the photos were taken with a box brownie camera that my grandfather found in the sand near Cairo. I can identify him in half a dozen or so of the photos. I decided to put this collection online as there are many unidentified persons, so perhaps someone is going to recognise a relative in this collection. This project is in its infancy, so as I learn more of the circumstances of each photo I will add an accompanying text where possible, and welcome any help in this respect. The photos are mounted into two albums, and the order on the webpage follows the album order.

[JoMH]

Nigel,

Welcome to the GWF! And many thanks for sharing these photographs. I will watch with great interest as you add more.

Did your grandfather continue to serve after Gallipoli? I can see that his personnel file is at Archives NZ, David Smith Laing Keay (?), but it has not yet been digitized - which perhaps indicates that you haven't ordered it yourself. If you know anything about his service it would be interesting if it was added here. If not, I'm sure there are some members of the forum who would be able to help you.

Joanna

[nigelkeay]

Thanks Joanna, for your reply. Yes, you have the right person there, and no I haven't ordered a copy of his personnel file. I should do so though.

What I do also have in my possession are two of my grandfather's "Soldier's Pay Book for Use on Active Service". The first one opens on 1st April 1916 with the place as Pont de Houb (?) through May, then from june onwards London for the rest of the book. The second book opens on 7th April 1917 with first entry in London then arriving back in Auckland on 6th July 1917. The information doesn't always correspond with what I had been told but is obviously a more reliable source. By one family member I was told that after Gallipoli he went back to Egypt then NZ, but another told me he was hospitalized in London which seems more accurate. So at this stage I'm not clear what service he did after Gallipoli. Presumably the personnel file will reveal much more.

[barracks]

hi nigel,welcome to the forum your photos are suberb thanks for showing them they seem to show the full story eygpt to galipoli i would think the australian museums would be very interested in them, i also found some photos of the 5th battalion lancashire fusilers and the manchester regiment from rochdale to eygpt and on to galipoli and in the trenches which i gave a copy of each photo to the lancashire fusileers museum which will go on their virtual world screen for all to see in a couple of weeks there has been a of interest on the forum in my photos which are in solders titled unknown photos help please by micheal nearly 2000 have looked at them and i still have some more photos to put on,i look forward to seeing the other photos you have,best regards mike.

[speedwobble]

Thanks for sharing these Nigel. I too am trying to piece together my Great Grandfathers experiences of the Gallipoli campaign. He served with the 1st Battalion Royal Inniskilling Fusilliers who land there on 25th April 1915. I am hoping to get a copy of the war diaries to shed some light on what happened.

[(nzef)]

Fantastic - Well done for sharing these. And I see you listed them on the 25th April to boot!

I would start by ordering his service file from Archway. Digitising is currently taking a week or so from ordering, but it depends on how busy the archivists are. They do a great job.

You would have seen his bio on the Auckland Cenotaph site.

http://muse.aucklandmuseum.com/databases/cenotaph/RecordDetail.aspx?OriginalID=47449&Ordinal=3&c_surname_search=keay

I would then also take a look through the papers past site to see if you can find any interesting newspaper articles from the period.

http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast

And for more detailed information, either purchase a copy of the Unit History or if you dont want to spend any money you could download a digitised copy from NZETC. This will allow you to do text searches e.t.c

http://www.nzetc.org/tm/scholarly/tei-WH1-Cant.html

If you need any assistance with any of this or have any questions, then please let us know

Cheers

Grant

[nigelkeay]

Michael, speedwobble & Grant, thanks for your replies. You are all keeping me motivated to continue putting the collection online. I contacted Archives NZ a few days about the NZ Defence Force personnel file; I have a niece in Wellington that is going to call in there and follow that up. I was in Auckland in February and contacted the Museum having in mind a possible donation of the collection if they were interested, but at that stage a moratorium on donations was in force. I've certainly enjoyed scanning them to be able to appreciate the detail they contain - the originals are small but fortunately clear. There's nothing written on the back of the photos of one of the albums (I've been able to easily remove them to scan them) however on the second album the mounting is completely different and they are very firmly glued to the page.

Here in Paris I'm involved with the France-NZ Association. There's a tradition for the members to go each year on ANZAC Day to a Turkish restaurant together, so after we met I sent the link with the first few photos and have continued from there with it. Some of the Association's activities have involved visits to Le Quesnoy & Arras etc; One of the members produced a book "A Sovereign In My Pocket" - The Story of Bombardier Archibald K. Greves who served on the Western Front in WW1. It's a bi-lingual book in French and English. I did a quick search on this site but didn't see any reference to the name.

[stevenbecker]

Mate,

Thanks for the photos.

I found the few of an Armoured Car unit showing the cars and Motorcyles very interesting. I did wonder what unit that could be?

Also the last photo of the group showing an Old Officer with all his medals on, any ideas who he is?

Cheers

S.B

[ShirlD]

Great photos Nigel, do keep posting them, i am very interested

Cheers

Shirley

[judy7007]

Great photos Nigel and I really look forward to seeing the project develop and reading accompanying text (where possible) as you mention

cheers

Judy

[(nzef)]

Michael, speedwobble & Grant, thanks for your replies. You are all keeping me motivated to continue putting the collection online. I contacted Archives NZ a few days about the NZ Defence Force personnel file; I have a niece in Wellington that is going to call in there and follow that up. I was in Auckland in February and contacted the Museum having in mind a possible donation of the collection if they were interested, but at that stage a moratorium on donations was in force. I've certainly enjoyed scanning them to be able to appreciate the detail they contain - the originals are small but fortunately clear. There's nothing written on the back of the photos of one of the albums (I've been able to easily remove them to scan them) however on the second album the mounting is completely different and they are very firmly glued to the page.

Here in Paris I'm involved with the France-NZ Association. There's a tradition for the members to go each year on ANZAC Day to a Turkish restaurant together, so after we met I sent the link with the first few photos and have continued from there with it. Some of the Association's activities have involved visits to Le Quesnoy & Arras etc; One of the members produced a book "A Sovereign In My Pocket" - The Story of Bombardier Archibald K. Greves who served on the Western Front in WW1. It's a bi-lingual book in French and English. I did a quick search on this site but didn't see any reference to the name.

Hi,

I have that book - and you can deffinitely purchase it in the book shops in Ieper (I'm a Kiwi in Belgium by the way). I'm sure it's available on-line if you were after it, or let me know and I get you a copy the next time I'm down in Ieper.

Cheers

[nigelkeay]

I just mentioned the book as it was one of several factors that got me more interested in this period of history. I have the book already, in fact we came to Leper a few months ago to deliver copies of the book (my wife and, MJ Poux who did the translation into French). We picked a whole lot up from a printery in the North of France and drove around dropping them off at various museum bookshops etc. That book completely sold out the first edition so it was reprinted.

Is there some sort of social group like our association to keep kiwis in contact up your way?

Nigel

[barracks]

Michael, speedwobble & Grant, thanks for your replies. You are all keeping me motivated to continue putting the collection online. I contacted Archives NZ a few days about the NZ Defence Force personnel file; I have a niece in Wellington that is going to call in there and follow that up. I was in Auckland in February and contacted the Museum having in mind a possible donation of the collection if they were interested, but at that stage a moratorium on donations was in force. I've certainly enjoyed scanning them to be able to appreciate the detail they contain - the originals are small but fortunately clear. There's nothing written on the back of the photos of one of the albums (I've been able to easily remove them to scan them) however on the second album the mounting is completely different and they are very firmly glued to the page.

Here in Paris I'm involved with the France-NZ Association. There's a tradition for the members to go each year on ANZAC Day to a Turkish restaurant together, so after we met I sent the link with the first few photos and have continued from there with it. Some of the Association's activities have involved visits to Le Quesnoy & Arras etc; One of the members produced a book "A Sovereign In My Pocket" - The Story of Bombardier Archibald K. Greves who served on the Western Front in WW1. It's a bi-lingual book in French and English. I did a quick search on this site but didn't see any reference to the name.

[barracks]

hi nigel,on the subject of the other album which are stuck down my photos were stuck down on pages with glue first of all i tried peeling off with a sharp knife it did not work they were well stuck down then i tried steaming the the back of the page this worked briliantly it takes a long time to do it but it works without damaging the photos,and on the back of mine were names and places i was over the moon all this information would have been lost if i had carried on cutting them of because it was in pencil so just try it on one first and see how it goes,best regards mike.

[(nzef)]

I just mentioned the book as it was one of several factors that got me more interested in this period of history. I have the book already, in fact we came to Leper a few months ago to deliver copies of the book (my wife and, MJ Poux who did the translation into French). We picked a whole lot up from a printery in the North of France and drove around dropping them off at various museum bookshops etc. That book completely sold out the first edition so it was reprinted.

Is there some sort of social group like our association to keep kiwis in contact up your way?

Nigel

Hi Nigel,

Apologies, I wasn't keeping an eye on this thread and missed your post.

I am on the mailing list of Kiwi's in Belgium - A social group which organises events, such as wreath laying on ANZAC day, BBQ's, sports e.t.c

Surprising how many Kiwi's there are in Belgium.

Cheers

Grant

[nigelkeay]

Just got a message today from Phil (in Auckland) who is 99% certain that the officer you asked about is RSM Charles Livesey of the NZ Rifle Brigade.

Also the last photo of the group showing an Old Officer with all his medals on, any ideas who he is?

Cheers

S.B

[nigelkeay]

New information has come to light on my grandfather D.S.L.Keay. Thanks to the putting online of "The Press" from 6 July 1915 I'm able to learn a little more through the "Extracts from Soldiers' Letters". Here is the link: http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&d=CHP19150706.2.118 This is the first time I've seen D.S.L.Keay referred to as a Sergeant-Bugler.

[Wendy Macpherson]

Great photos Nigel

Cant believe I missed this thread, thought I had seen all the NZEF stuff. 3rd Battalion Canterbury Infantry Regiment is my interest.

That's great new's that you have found more information, you have to keep checking paperspast as they are constantly adding new publications.

Wendy

[nigelkeay]

Thanks, Wendy. In the last couple of days I've added photo/scans of a Soldier's Pay Book. What's interesting is the week by week location it gives, something that doesn't necessarily (it seems to me) show in the service record. Unfortunately it doesn't cover the preceding period - that would've been interesting. The two I've got are from 1916 onwards. Here's the ink to have a look: DSLK documents

[Guest]

Hi I am very interested in your photos to learn more about the experience of my great uncle Fred and others at Gallipoli. Archibald Frederick Patterson was a Private in Canterbury Infantry Battalion, 2nd Company. He was killed in action near Quinn's Post in late May 1915. The older brother of my grandfather, Fred enlisted at age 26 on 17 August 1914 in Timaru. He was originally from Dannevirke in the Hawkes Bay. His Casualty Form—Active Service says he was wounded by gunshot to the abdomen on 29 May 1915. The next day he was admitted to the '1st Australian Case Clearing Station'. He died on 13 June 1915 and is buried at Beach Cemetery. The Military Force Certificate issued from Headquarters, New Zealand Military Forces, Wellington (dated 30 October 1916) recorded his death as the day after he was wounded ('died of wounds (received in action) at Gallipoli on 30 May 1915').