NZ Personnel Archives

[christine liava'a]

I have just received a 56 page file from NZ Personnel Records Archive, after I had emailed, and spoken to the archivist as well.

I had asked about the 60 men from Fiji who arrived in NZ in August 1918.They do not appear in the Nominal Rolls of the NZEF

One of them-Alexander Saunders -died in Auckland. On his grave there is an NZEF number. I wanted to know whether the other men also had NZEF numbers and consequently were officially members of the NZEF

This required finding Alexander Saunders' file then working through all the nearby files to see whether any others came from Fiji.

I sent them a list of the names I had.

I received back Alexander Saunders' whole file;

2 copies of my list with extra details added showing that they were members of the NZEF and giving their numbers;

copies of all official documents concerning this unit,

and the whole file for Arthur Ernest Samuel HOWARD, an Irishman from Dungannon , Co Tyrone, Ireland, who was a policeman in Fiji and was seconded to be officer in charge of the unit

56 pages in all. It has taken about 4 weeks, and was absolutely FREE

Applicants for personnel files are normally allowed one free file per year, but normally it involves being given a name and military number, then just extracting that file and photocopying it.

My request involved a lot more work, and I want to offer them public praise.

Anyone who wants to deal with them, their email address is

nzdf.personnelarchives@paradise.net.nz

[paul guthrie]

I only needed record of one man but yes they were most helpful and wanted the ST! with the article about the NZ soldier I wrote about and asked for his picture.