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Overview
This Post Guides standard features an appliqued images of a medieval knight in a white cape with a red cross; a silver fern with the letters 'NZ', and the words 'Fight On' in black and 12 silver stars on a purple ground. The standard is edged with gold metallic fringing, and features a hoist for a pole.
The Post Guides
The standard was designed and used by what were originally known as the 'Post guides' and later as the 'Extension branch' of the Girl Guides. The branch was established for girls who whose health and/or physical incapacity prevented them from taking an active part in a company. Many Post Guides, such as New Zealand literary talent Gloria Rawlinson (1918-1995) who was a victim of the 1925 polio epidemic, lived in hospital wards. As their original name implies, Post Gudies were kept in contact by post and through a special newsletter Kia Ora. From 1926 the Post Guides were led by Mrs H Huntington, who was wheelchair bound. The Post Guides were joined by Post Rangers and in 1931 a blind Post Ranger company.
Post Guides Standard
The standard depicts a knight in armour holding a broken sword and the motto 'Fight On'. In keeping with this motto, guides who 'fought on with exceptional courage' and 'endurance under suffering' were awarded the Badge of Fortitude. The first New Zealand recipient of this badge was Rene Thomson, who spent two years in hospital before being joining the Durie Hill guide company in Whanganui.
Changing philosophies
The Post Guides were renamed the Extension Branch in the 1960s. In response to the new 'mainstreaming' philosophies of the 1980s, and the appointment of Dr Mary Dawson, a child psychologist to the Special Needs position around 1981, the Extension branch was disestablished and its members encouraged to join active companies.