"It's been a long haul ... getting everything in one place. I started with a folder, then I got a box, and another folder."
Her mother, Joe's eldest daughter, had always hoped her father would receive the recognition he deserved for the rare photograph.
The negative of the photo was recently discovered when a family member was cleaning out a shed.
"He saw a box with grandad's writing on it and thought, 'I better look in it' and he found this," she said unwrapping a small brown box.
Sherril gently peels back tissue paper to reveal a glass negative of New Zealand soldiers stepping on to the beach at Gallipoli.
"Finding this was just confirmation ... my mother always said she'd seen the negative. I was so excited," she said. It's because of these men who took their diaries and their cameras that we have a record of it today.
Joe was training to be a teacher when he signed up for war. He was one of four brothers who signed up for active duty and served in the Auckland Infantry Battalion.
Just three returned from the war. Younger brother David was killed in France. He was found with a five-pound note in his pocket that Joe and brother Billy had given him for for his 21st birthday just days before.
Joe knew cameras were forbidden but he concealed his vest-pocket Kodak and carried it all the way from Christchurch to Gallipoli. The amateur photographer was passionate about capturing moments, Sherril said.
After wading ashore, Joe quickly pulled the camera out and snapped his comrades landing, before continuing on. Most of the men in the photo died during the Gallipoli campaign. Intentionally breaking the rules did not sit well with him, Sherril said. And it got him into trouble with his superiors.
"He felt bad about it. He was an absolute Christian and he wouldn't do anything wrong."
But the amateur photographer felt strongly about capturing the historic moment.
"I think being the teacher that he was, he could see value in it."
The picture was sent home and ran in the Auckland Weekly News on March 16, 1916. He was given the Anzac Commemorative Medallion in 1967.
Joe protected his daughters from the tales of war, never speaking of the atrocities he must have seen. He gave a print of the landing photo to each of his three daughters. "When he gave the photo to the girls, his three daughters, he said one day this will be a very famous photo in history."
The fourth original photo, he had printed for himself hangs at Papanui High School in Christchurch. He was the first principal of the new Christchurch school in 1936. The photo also adorns the doorway of the Gallipoli room of Anzac House in Wellington. The historic shot was made into a stamp as part of an Anzac commemoration series in 2008.
Sherril has fond memories of her "kind, patient" grandfather, who also passed on his love of photography to many in the family.
Sherril jokes that she met her husband in the darkroom.
She is immensely proud of her grandfather. It took guts to smuggle the camera to war and courage to stop and take a snap as the men headed into unknown territory.
Joseph Bell McBride
Was born on October 25, 1892, in Charlton, Southland. He trained as a teacher, his first job being at Christchurch Technical College, where he later became deputy head. On his return to New Zealand, he enrolled at Otago University and gained a Bachelor of Science degree.
He was 31 years old when he married. He was made principal of the new Papanui High 1936 where he stayed until 1952. His portrait hangs along with a fourth original print in the McBride wing, which was named after him. After retirement, he taught at Southland Boys' High School. He died, at 77, March 18, 1970, in Invercargill.
-To find out more: www.gallipolilanding.nz
