Immigrated to New Zealand with his parents and three siblings (two brothers and one sister), arriving in Wellington in early February 1921.

The family moved to Auckland where he received most of his schooling. He left just before his 14th birthday.

From 1927 to 1938, he worked on farms in the Bay of Plenty and Waikato.

While working in Tatanui, he met and married Margaret Scott Burberry on 14 October 1939.

With the outbreak of war in September 1939, he enlisted at Morrinsville and left with the 26th Battalion in August 1940.

While on a three-week layover in Bombay, India, he received word on the birth of his daughter, Margaret.

After further training in Egypt, he left with the Battalion for Greece where, after a disastrous campaign, he was evacuated back to Egypt aboard HMT Isis.

Was captured and taken prisoner in Libya on 30 November 1941, after German tanks overran his position, and then shipped from Tripoli to Naples, Italy, in late December, eventually ending up in a working camp (Camp 107) in northern Italy.

He escaped but was recaptured by the Germans, after having spent three months in the snow-covered high country while trying to rejoin the allied forces to the south in Rome. Was sent to Amsdorf, a working camp in Germany.

Was liberated by the American Texas Rangers in April, and shipped to Chelmsford, England, arriving on his 32nd birthday.

After repatriation to New Zealand, he worked for D.C. Street Construction Company, rebuilding the Waitoa Dairy factory. On its completion he went farming and remained in the Waitoa district until 1961, when he and his family to Manurewa, Auckland, where he worked for Marley Company until his retirement in 1974.

He and his wife retired in Cambridge, eventually settling in Lemington.

The Auckland Museum Library's manuscripts collection (MS 2005/6) holds material (letters, printed ephemera, certificates) relating to Vaudrey's wartime service. The museum's history department holds his KEV and POW Association life membership pins. AWMM