New Zealnd Engineers Badge

[loupie1961]

NZ Engineers badge: is it a cap badge or a collar badge? What vintage, more or less? I'm a collector of WWII militaria, and as long as I know, the 2nd NZEF wore only the "Onward" badge.... thank you once again!

[wairua]

Hi Loupie,

I’m no expert but according to D. A. Corbett’s book “The Regimental Badges of New Zealand” your have a cap badge of “The Corps of NZ Engineers”. The collar badge is a flaming grenade.

Unfortunately he doesn’t give definite dates for it’s use but from what I can work out it was definitely used in WW1 and possibly WW2 (perhaps only in NZ until posted overseas when the Onward badge was used?).

The Corps was granted the prefix “Royal” in 1947 so I suppose it dates prior to that anyway.

Apparently the badge came in two sizes, the larger one with a 1 ¼ inch diameter was the badge of the NZ Engineers Tunnelling Company who formed in Sep 1915 and disbanded Apr 1919.

Hope that’s of some help and that someone can supply definitive dates for you.

Cheers,
Wairua

[atillathenunns]

NZ Engineer Corps badge, 5th Oct 1911 - 12th Jul 1947 (Only worn in NZ during WW2)
Due to the long use of this badge it is one of the most common of NZ badges and was made by many different manurfactures.
Your example is made by Mayer and Kean of Wellington.
Brent