The New Zealand badge books by Dave Corbett and Geoff Lowe divide NZ Reinforcement badges into two categories, those that were worn by the individual soldiers themselves, and those that were given by the soldiers to their sweethearts, wives and mothers.
Puk’s discovery in November 2009 opened a third category, his photograph of Trooper Robert Scott who embarked with the 6th reinforcements, provided the first solid evidence that early Reinforcement badges were purposely made for display by museums and the collectors market by using badge frames that had not been worn until much later reinforcement drafts.
Curious as to just how popular badge collecting was during WW1, I started collecting every bit of information I could find on early NZ badge collections, and eventually started the following thread which is still a work in progress.
http://www.britishbadgeforum.com/for...ad.php?t=27360
November 2009 may have been the awakening, but December 2009 was a very happy Christmas, as this was when I came up with the idea of asking a bunch of collectors to share what they had regarding NZ Reinforcement badges.
The response was fantastic and way more than I had hoped for, and on the 2nd January 2010, I started the “New Zealand Rifle Brigade Badges and Insignia Database” on the MilitariaNZ forum.
http://militarianz.freeforums.org/ne...ase-t1797.html
Four weeks later on the 31st January 2010, I started the “New Zealand Mounted Rifle Reinforcement Badge Database.”
http://militarianz.freeforums.org/ne...837.html#p9325
For those who are not fortunate to have Geoff Oldham’s 2nd edition of ‘Badges and Insignia of the New Zealand,’ which is an illustrated price guide published in 2011, the following picture is taken from the top of page 35.
As can be seen, Geoff has pictured the ‘1st Pattern’ Triple Fern badge 4/5 (worn by 6th 7th and the 8th Reinforcements), and the ‘3rd Pattern’ 1st, 2nd and 3rd Reinforcements Triple Fern badges 4/1, 4/3 and 4/4 (made for museums and the collectors market)
Geoff has also pictured the rare ‘4th Pattern’ Triple Fern badge 4/2, and interestingly, except for the ‘1’ and ‘Reinforcements,’ it appears to have to be identical to the other 3 triple fern patterns.
These ‘4th Pattern’ Triple Fern badges are said to be available in both brass and silver, and with or without “NZ” lettering.
The following 2nd Reinforcements ‘4th Pattern’ Triple Fern badge picture is from the renowned collection of Craig Hooper.
As to which category the ‘4th Pattern’ Triple Fern badge fits into, I can only speculate, possibly they are patriotic/sweetheart, maybe they were worn by returned veterans, but for some reason I am leaning towards them being made for the collectors market.
What I can be 100% sure of is that the ‘4th Pattern’ Triple Ferns or any other reinforcement badges were not worn by the 1st or 2nd Reinforcements.
To add weight to that theory is the following document, dated the 28th November 1914, it was sent to the NZ Defence HQ in Wellington, and is signed by Captain Charles Eric Andrews NZSC, on behalf of Lieutenant-Colonel Edmund Robert Bowler, who was the Commanding Officer of the 2nd Reinforcements.
The document itself is pretty much a complaint by the Commanding Officer of the 2nd Reinforcements, about the lack of badges available for the 2nd Reinforcements two weeks prior to their embarkation on the 14th December 1914.
At the bottom of the document dated 3rd December 1914, is a note from Major General Alfred William Robin, who was NZ Quartermaster-General from December 1910, to the 5th May 1919, he was also Commandant of the NZ Military Forces from 10th September 1914, to the 10th December 1919.
