The ‘E’ Squadron – (an entirely New Zealand Squadron) headdress and collar badges depict a fern-leaf inscribed with the letters NZ. In brass (KK 1377).
The silver fern headdress badge first appears in photographs of the Kings’ Colonials at their annual camp in St. Albans in the summer of 1904. In 1903 an attempt to create an entirely New Zealand ‘E’ Squadron proved unsuccessful due to insufficient numbers of New Zealanders being recruited. By the summer of 1904, the New Zealanders constituted the 3rd Troop of ‘D’ Squadron (British African).
The ‘E’ Squadron (New Zealand) headdress badge is shown being worn in Figure 250.
Figure 250: The ‘E’ (New Zealand) Squadron headdress badge (KK 1377) and matching collar badges being worn by a group of New Zealand Squadron Officers and Other Ranks circa 1907. Serjeant Herbert MacIntosh is seated third from the right with the marksman badge to his left sleeve. (Photograph courtesy of Dave Stewart).Figure 251 shows the New Zealand collar badges on a King's Colonials tunic collar as worn by Serjeant Herbert MacIntosh circa 1907.
Figure 251: The New Zealand collar badges on a King's Colonials tunic collar as worn by Serjeant Herbert MacIntosh circa 1907.Figure 252 shows a genuine ‘E’ Squadron (New Zealand) Officer's headdress badge in gilt. The headdress badge is die struck and has prominent full stops after the letters N and Z and the veins on the silver fern leaf are sharp and crisp. The east-west positioned loops are an old replacement with pairs of wire loops.
Figure 252: A genuine ‘E’ Squadron (New Zealand) Officer's gilt headdress badge (KK 1377) with an old replacement of the loops with pairs of wire loops. 
