Thanks Tinto, It has taken me a long time to find one. (I should mention that the brass 2nd Pattern Specialists MG badge belongs to Tinto)
Martin, the Gaunt invoices are very important.
I have two NZMGS shoulder titles in my collection, William Bock of Wellington manufactured one, and the other has no maker mark, which suggests it was made in New Zealand. Stokes of Melbourne also manufactured them in Australia.
I have yet to find a Gaunt made title.
The important part of the Gaunt invoice, is as you point out £965!
From 1910 until 1917, J. R. Gaunt and Sons were the NZ Governments authorised supplier of military badges, buttons etc. (The early New Zealand sealed pattern badges were made by Gaunt)
To cut a long story short, the NZEF Quartermaster-General started questioning the Gaunt prices, the outcome was Gaunt lost the NZ Government contract. (Worthy of its own thread)
For us badge collectors this helps put a time line on what period Gaunt badges were in use, and when other manufacturers kicked in making badges. (NZ Regimental and Corps provided their own badges and had the freedom to choose their own preferred manufacturer, which was usually Gaunt prior to WW1)
Andy, it does seem small, but I think you can appreciate that when the NZ Machine Gun Sections were first authorised in 1910, they would have seemed a formidable unit of that time.
The formation of Machine Gun Sections into Companies and Squadrons of the New Zealand Machine Gun Corps was a necessary expansion, however they still operated as Machine gun sections up until the end of the war, but instead of one section, there was a lot of sections working together.
Its like fitting a round peg into a square hole, sure it may fit, but is it correct???
The addition of the word “Specialist” to the newly formed Company of Signallers and Machine-gunners didn’t take place until the 13th Reinforcements. From that point on, the official designations were Specialist Company, Specialist Machine-Gun Section and Specialist Signal Section. (I have lots of copies of original wartime documents that have these designations)
The following 3 pictures are all 15th Reinforcements.
51st Reinforcements
