These photos of Alexander Charters were taken on December 1914 at Trentham Camp (left) and early 1915 Egypt (right).
From the photos it appears the 17th Ruahine badges were not available before Charters embarked with the 2nd Reinforcements on the 14 December 1914.
The following photo was taken near the NZ Base Depot in Alexandria between April and December 1915. Charters pictured on the left is wearing a large size Ruahine badge on his sun helmet.
Interestingly, I have a copy of a letter dated 18th February 1916 from a soldier in the NZ Veterinary Corps to his local Member of Parliament, which mentions. —
“The Ruahine Regiment arrived in Egypt without badges but on this being brought to the Sultans (Hussein Kamel of Egypt) notice he presented the corps with a complete set.”
This would explain why the 17th (Ruahine) Regiment was the only NZ unit to be issued with a helmet badge.
