A few more great photos (thanks again to Sunbeam) of Alfred Sloan and a couple of his brother Monty.
The following photo is titled “Spring Grove camp 1913.” Alf is identified by Sunbeam as being in the third row, fifth from the left.
Interestingly the Canterbury Military District Territorial camp was held in March 1913 at Yaldhurst, which at the time included 17 officers and 531 men of the 12th (Nelson) Regiment. So it appears the Spring Grove camp (IMO 25th, 26th, and 27th October 1913) was held in the Spring Grove school grounds, for men of the 12th Regiment who were unable to attend the Yaldhurst Territorial camp.
The big guy (2nd row, sixth from the right) is the camps main instructor, Staff-Sergeant-Major Colclough.
The following photo is important as it just about completes the “Service Dress” jackets that were worn by Alf during WW1.
The photo unfortunately is undated, however, as Alf is wearing a New Zealand issue ‘1912 pattern Territorial Ordinary Ranks SD jacket,’ and taking into account Alf was a ‘Main body’ man, and that as the New Zealand uniforms wore out in Egypt, England and France, they were replaced by British five-button SD jackets, we can assess the photo was definitely taken prior to Alf’s embarkation on the 16th October 1914.
Alf is also wearing a typical New Zealand manufactured 1912 version of the ‘Model 1905 British Other Ranks Service Dress Cap,’ which would have been made by Bing Harris and Company in Dunedin.
This would have been the very hat and uniform that Alf was wearing when he first stepped ashore at Gallipoli in 1915.
The NZ SD jacket Alf is wearing would have most likely been manufactured by the Kaiapoi Woollen Manufacturing Company. The badges on the collar and hat are as expected, those of the 12th (Nelson) Regiment. The shoulder boards were piped in red which indicates infantry, and have a brass number 12 over the letters NZR (New Zealand Rifles)
The following photo shows Montague Haydon Sloan just before he embarked with the Wellington Infantry Battalion’s 2nd Reinforcements.
Unlike the Main Body men who were supplied their uniforms through their own Regimental stores, the 2nd Reinforcements and all following reinforcements were supplied their uniforms on arrival at Trentham Camp.
Monty is also wearing the New Zealand 1912 pattern Territorial Ordinary Ranks SD jacket and cap, and on his pants you can see piping which would have been red to match the piping on the shoulder boards.
Monty is not wearing any regimental badges, as at this point he had not been officially assigned to a company. He is however wearing brass ‘NZR’ shoulder titles.
The following photo shows Monty sporting a superb moustache and wearing a British Issue Other Ranks Five-button Service Dress Jacket.
The easy to spot difference between the war-time New Zealand issue and British issue SD Jacket, is the British made jackets have two distinctive stich lines (known as darts) just below the collar, extending to the rifle patches, whereas the New Zealand made jackets only have one dart.
However just to confuse uniform collectors, from 1918 (and post war) British Service Dress jackets were produced with only one dart.
The 12th (Nelson) Regiment collar badges worn by Monty suggest the photo was taken sometime between the 20th of February 1916 and the 18th July 1917.
