Samoan force members in Auckland

Members of Auckland's section of the ‘Advance Guard’, made up of volunteers from the Territorial Force, march down Wellesley St East on 10 August 1914. They are on their way to Auckland railway station to board a train for Wellington. Members of Auckland’s Divisional Signalling Corps, also part of the Advance Guard, had left the city for Wellington on the previous two days.

On 15 August these men and the rest of the 'Advance Guard', by now known as the Advance Party of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force, left Wellington on two troopships. Their destination – German Samoa – was not revealed to them until they were well on their way.