item details
Overview
Portrait of William John Main, service number 42762, and a young woman.
The soldier in this portrait was identified by his daughter as William John Main. The woman may be William's sister, Eva Louisa (1900 - 1981) who married Felix George Jury in 1926.
William was born in Helensville in 1895. When he attested for military service on 1 November 1916 he was living in Wellington and working for New Zealand Railways as a Cadet. He was single, and named Helen who lived in Remuera, Auckland, as his next of kin.
William entered training camp on 3 January 1917 and was posted to the Signals Section of the 25th Reinforcements' Specialist Company; his Railways experience would have made him familiar with telegraph and telephone equipment.
He embarked from Wellington on 26 April 1917 and marched into Sling Camp in England on 20 July. He immediately joined the Canterbury Company's 4th Reserve Battalion but was transferred to the Otago Regiment's 4th Reserve Battalion on 5 September. William qualified as a 'First Class Signaller' on 22 November. He was sent to France on 11 January 1918 where he was transferred to the 1st Battalion Auckland Infantry Regiment on 17 February.
On 3 April William was admitted to hospital suffering from 'P.U.O.' (Pyrexia of Unknown Origin), and acronym often used for 'Trench Fever' or some other unspecific or as yet undiagnosed fever. For the rest of 1918, William was to spend considerable time in hospital and rest camp convalescing from 'P.U.O.' and diarrohea. On 23 June he was transferred to No. 1 Entrenching Battalion, then to the 2nd Battalion Auckland Infantry Regiment on 27 August but was admitted to hospital in France again on 5 September with diarrohea. He was evacuated to Brockenhurst Hospital in England on 27 September with severe diarrohea, discharged on 5 November and sent to the New Zealand Convalescent Depot at Torquay. He embarked for New Zealand on 2 December where he was discharged from the NZEF on 6 February 1919.
William married Grace Victoria Cobb in 1922 and died at Wellington on 25 July 1947, aged 52.
The Berry Boys
During World War I, around 120 Kiwi soldiers had their photograph taken at Wellington’s Berry & Co photography studio before they left New Zealand to fight in the war . These portraits are now in Te Papa’s collection.
In the lead-up to the World War I centenary (2014-18), Te Papa is working to identify these soldiers and the loved ones they are pictured with. We want to make contact with their descendants, and to record their stories.
Some soldiers have already been identified. For others, we only have the surname etched on the glass negative.
Contact us
If you have any information you can share about the Berry Boys - either a soldier or someone they are photographed with - please use the online form above. You can also email berryboys@tepapa.govt.nz or leave a phone message for us on 04 381 7129. You can also write to Berry Boys Project Team, Te Papa, PO Box 467, Wellington 6140.
To aid identification, please be sure to include the Te Papa registration number (B.044366, for example) for the photo in question.