This badge was worn by Mary Ellen Affleck, a daughter of Robert and Jessie Affleck, of Opunake. Mary trained as a nurse and embarked as a nurse with the New Zealand Army Nursing Service Corps during World War I. She served in the New Zealand General Hospital in Cairo, Egypt and in the General Hospital in Brockenhurst, England. She also appears to have served on hospital transport ships. These silver fern badges were worn as part of the uniform of the New Zealand Army Nursing Service Corps during World War I. In the book The War Effort of New Zealand, published in 1923 Hester Maclean, writes of the first contingent of nurses she led as Matron-in-Chief, that "A picturesque group they made in their coats of grey and scarlet, so well known as the British Army Nurses' uniform, varied somewhat to distinguish their special unit, and with a silver badge of fern leaf and a red cross to represent New Zealand." See New Zealand Electronic Text Centre http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-WH1-Effo-t1-body-d5.html 

Also see: Cenotaph Database record at Auckland War Memorial Museum. http://muse.aucklandmuseum.com/databases/Cenotaph/34793.detail?keywords=Affleck%20Mary%20Ellen%20World%20War%20I,%201914-1918