Born in London in March 1843, the son of Mark Vandam, his background was Dutch-Jewish descent.
Settling in London in 1871, he engaged in translation from the French and Dutch and other literary work, occasionally going abroad on special missions for newspapers.
From 1882 to 1887 Vandam was again in Paris as correspondent for the Globe, subsequently making his home anew in London.
He wrote further works on French life and history, sometimes slighting:[1] Vandam translated for the first time into English, under the title of Social Germany in Luther's Time, the autobiography of the sixteenth-century Pomeranian notary Bartholomäus Sastrow, which he published in 1902 (with introduction by H. A. L. Fisher).
Other works included:[1] Vandam married Maria, daughter of Lewin Moseley, a London dentist.