Kiwi Medals

Here’s a single shoulder title for New Zealand Infantry, dating from ww2. I received it in a big bunch of stuff for a guy who was in Hiroshima in 1945.

This is a WW1 era collar dog for the Canterbury Yeomanry Cavalry, or 1st Canterbury Mounted Rifles.

The 1st (Canterbury Yeomanry Cavalry) Regiment was officially raised on 17 March 1911. It was one of 12 regionally based mounted rifles regiments formed as part of the new Territorial Force (TF) organisation that came into existence on that day. This part-time Territorial Force and a tiny regular force of professional soldiers formed the basis of New Zealand’s army at the outbreak of the First World War.

Instead of mobilising the TF, however, the government decided to raise a separate force to send overseas to fight – the New Zealand Expeditionary Force (NZEF). In 1914 the new mounted regiments of the NZEF were given provincial names corresponding to the military district in which they were raised – Auckland, Wellington, Canterbury or Otago. This gave them some sense of regional identity.

The NZEF mounted regiments were instructed to affiliate each of the three squadrons under their command with a TF mounted rifles regiment from their military district, and to issue the regiment’s badge to the squadron. The idea was to foster linkages with the established TF regiments that were not being sent overseas. So the badge of the 1st (Canterbury Yeomanry Cavalry), TF, was worn by the 1st (Canterbury Yeomanry Cavalry) Squadron of the Canterbury Mounted Rifles Regiment, NZEF, throughout its service in the Gallipoli, Sinai and Palestine campaigns.

This badge, for the 11th North Auckland Mounted Rifles, is the left facing collar badge. This badge is twice as rare as the right facing example since the right hand one served as both the cap badge and a collar dog. You can see these examples here.