Red Serge
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The Red Serge refers to the jacket of the dress uniform of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. It consists of a scarlet British-style military pattern tunic, complete with a high-neck collar.
Constables and NCOs wear gorget patches on their collars and shoulder straps of navy blue. In Review and Full Dress orders officers' uniforms have pointed navy blue cuffs, while senior officers wear a metallic belt, not a leather Sam Browne, and gold plaited shoulder cords in full dress. Polished brass buttons, and gold coloured metal or embroidered badges and insignia are part of the Red Serge uniform (all worn over a white cotton T-shirt). The riding breeches are "midnight blue" (virtually black) which bulge at the thigh in keeping with traditional cut with a yellow strapping (stripe) down the outside seam of each leg. The breeches are always worn with braces. Finishing off the Red Serge are brown leather riding boots, known as High Browns, and a chocolate brown wide-brimmed stetson with a glass-flat brim.
Prior to 1904, a white, topi-style of pith helmet was standard issue however plainsmen often preferred to ride wearing non-regulation cowboy hats and these subsequently became uniform issue in the form of the Stetson hat. The ever-present side-arm is carried in a brown leather holster on a brown Sam Browne belt. A white pistol lanyard is worn around the neck and connected to the side arm. There is a brown leather compartment for carrying handcuffs and ammunition for the sidearm.
An RCMP officer wearing the Red Serge is an internationally recognized Canadian icon. This order of dress is referred to as "Review Order".
The Red Serge is not worn as working dress when an officer is on normal duty, but is reserved for occasions such as civic ceremonies, musical rides, ceremonial parades, as a visual representative of the security force for government dignitaries, and during public relations–related special events such as school career days or guard duty at Parliament in Ottawa. Members also march in funerals for police officers wearing the traditional Red Serge.
The Red Serge is also worn by RCMP Members during special personal events, such as the wedding ceremony of a fellow officer, where it is not uncommon for an entire detachment of a small community to wear the Red Serge as an honour guard for the bride and groom at their wedding ceremony. Usually, if the groom is a Member, he will be married in his Red Serge, in lieu of civilian formal attire.
The mess dress worn by commissioned officers has a scarlet cutaway jacket. Female RCMP Members formerly wore a modified version of the Red Serge for review order without the high collar but now wear the same pattern of tunic as their male colleagues.
[edit] In popular culture
During his stint in the World Wrestling Federation, Jacques Rougeau wore a red serge outfit to play his character of "The Mountie"; however due to protests by the RCMP, the WWF mentioned repeatedly during his match that he was not a "true representative of the Mounties." Eventually litigation prevented Rougeau from appearing in Canada as The Mountie.
[edit] External links
There was a 1986 TV Show on CBC with this title.
