Canadian military fur wedge cap

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Billy Bishop wearing the fur wedge cap or "The Astrakhan" as a cadet, c. 1914 BillyBishopCadet.jpg
Billy Bishop wearing the fur wedge cap or "The Astrakhan" as a cadet, c. 1914

The Canadian military fur wedge cap, "envelope busby", or colloquially "The Astrakhan" [1] [2] is a uniform hat worn by the Canadian military and RCMP. The outside of the cap is entirely covered in real (e.g. seal skin or Persian lamb) or synthetic fur and is shaped like a wedge. When not being worn the cap folds flat. The cap is about 8 inches (200 mm) high but is normally worn with the apex of the wedge shape depressed back into the interior of the cap to form a longitudinal trough at the crown, reducing the overall height. Often the cap is patterned such that the front of the crown will be slightly higher than the back. On one side of the military style fur wedge cap hangs a flat flap made of cloth or wool that extends from the crown to the bottom of the cap, known as the "bag". The colour of the "bag" was determined by the regimental colours (e.g. the RCMP bag was yellow). The bag is very similar to that worn with the busby. Because of the cap's passing resemblance to the hussar busby author and researcher James J. Boulton [3] dubbed it the envelope busby. Still, whatever influence the busby may have had on its design, the fur wedge cap pattern was "distinctly Canadian." [3]

Busby fur military headdress

Busby is the English name for the Hungarian prémes csákó or kucsma, a military head-dress made of fur, originally worn by Hungarian hussars. In its original Hungarian form the busby was a cylindrical fur cap, having a bag of coloured cloth hanging from the top. The end of this bag was attached to the right shoulder as a defence against sabre cuts. In Great Britain busbies are of two kinds: (a) the hussar busby, cylindrical in shape, with a bag; this is worn by hussars and the Royal Horse Artillery; (b) the rifle busby, a folding cap of astrakhan formerly worn by rifle regiments, in shape somewhat resembling a Glengarry but taller. Both have straight plumes in the front of the headdress.

Royal Canadian Mounted Police mounted police force in Canada

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police is the federal and national police force of Canada. The RCMP provides law enforcement at the federal level. It also provides provincial policing in eight of Canada's provinces and local policing on contract basis in the three territories and more than 150 municipalities, 600 aboriginal communities, and three international airports. The RCMP does not provide provincial or municipal policing in Ontario or Quebec.

Fur seal subfamily of mammals

Fur seals are any of nine species of pinnipeds belonging to the subfamily Arctocephalinae in the family Otariidae. They are much more closely related to sea lions than true seals, and share with them external ears (pinnae), relatively long and muscular foreflippers, and the ability to walk on all fours. They are marked by their dense underfur, which made them a long-time object of commercial hunting. Eight species belong to the genus Arctocephalus and are found primarily in the Southern Hemisphere, while a ninth species also sometimes called fur seal, the northern fur seal, belongs to a different genus and inhabits the North Pacific.

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The fur wedge cap was used by both the North-West Mounted Police (NWMP), later Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), with the first examples coming into service in 1876 until 1901 and then again from 1928 until 1935. [3] Today the RCMP wear the Yukon pattern of fur cap that is similar to the Russian ushanka style. [3] [4] The other police unit that still regularly wears the fur wedge cap is the Toronto Police Mounted Unit as part of their full dress uniform. The Canadian military also wore the cap from about the end of the 19th century, and was formally adopted in the 1970s as the issued fur cap for all commands of the Canadian Forces during unification. [5] The bag was coloured rifle green. In Canadian Forces nomenclature it is known as Cap, Man’s Winter, Fur, C.F. Exactly when the fur cap stopped being in general issue is unclear; however, it is still being worn today by the officer cadets of the Royal Military College of Canada. [1] [6] [2] [7] As an example William Avery Bishop, Canadian flying ace, can be seen wearing the cap during his days in Royal Military College of Canada.

North-West Mounted Police

The North-West Mounted Police (NWMP) was a Canadian police force, established in 1873 by the Prime Minister, Sir John Macdonald, to maintain order in the North-West Territories. The mounted police combined military, police and judicial functions along similar lines to the Royal Irish Constabulary, and deployed the following year to the Alberta border in response to the Cypress Hills Massacre and subsequent fears of a United States military intervention. Their ill-planned and arduous journey of nearly 900 miles (1,400 km) became known as the March West and was portrayed by the force as an epic journey of endurance. Over the next few years, the police extended Canadian law across the region, establishing good working relationships with the First Nations. The force formed part of the military response to the North-West Rebellion in 1885, but faced criticism for their performance during the conflict.

Ushanka Russian fur cap with ear flaps

An ushanka, also called a ushanka-hat, is a Russian fur cap with ear flaps that can be tied up to the crown of the cap, or fastened at the chin to protect the ears, jaw, and lower chin from the cold. An alternate manner is to bend the flaps back and tie them behind the head, which is called "ski-style" — this offers less protection from the elements, but much better visibility, essential for high-speed skiing. The dense fur also offers some protection against blunt impacts to the head.

Royal Military College of Canada military college in Kingston, Ontario, Canada

The Royal Military College of Canada, commonly abbreviated as RMC , is the military college of the Canadian Armed Forces, and is a degree-granting university training military officers. RMC was established in 1876 and is the only federal institution in Canada with degree-granting powers. The Royal Military College of Canada Degrees Act, 1959 empowers the college to confer degrees in arts, science, and engineering. Programs are offered at the undergraduate and graduate levels, both on campus as well as through the college's distance learning programme via the Division of Continuing Studies.

The fur wedge cap is prominently featured in the Cecil B. DeMille film North West Mounted Police (1940), with the mounted police characters all wearing the cap despite the fact that the movie is set in the summer time. (In real usage, the cap was not intended to be worn in summer.)

Cecil B. DeMille American film director

Cecil Blount DeMille was an American filmmaker. Between 1914 and 1958, he made a total of 70 features, both silent and sound films. He is acknowledged as a founding father of the cinema of the United States and the most commercially successful producer-director in film history. His films were distinguished by their epic scale and by his cinematic showmanship. He made silent films of every genre: social dramas, comedies, Westerns, farces, morality plays, and historical pageants.

<i>North West Mounted Police</i> (film) 1940 film by Cecil B. DeMille, Arthur Rosson

North West Mounted Police is a 1940 American adventure film produced and directed by Cecil B. DeMille and starring Gary Cooper and Madeleine Carroll. Written by Alan Le May, Jesse Lasky Jr., and C. Gardner Sullivan, and based on the 1938 novel The Royal Canadian Mounted Police by R. C. Fetherstonhaugh, the film is about a Texas Ranger who joins forces with the North-West Mounted Police to put down a rebellion in the north-west prairies of Canada. The supporting cast features Paulette Goddard, Preston Foster, Robert Preston, Akim Tamiroff, Lon Chaney Jr. and George Bancroft. Regis Toomey, Richard Denning, Rod Cameron, and Robert Ryan make brief appearances in the film playing small roles.

A civilian version of the cap without the bag was fashionable in Canada during the 1970s.

Canada Country in North America

Canada is a country in the northern part of North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic to the Pacific and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering 9.98 million square kilometres, making it the world's second-largest country by total area. Canada's southern border with the United States is the world's longest bi-national land border. Its capital is Ottawa, and its three largest metropolitan areas are Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver. As a whole, Canada is sparsely populated, the majority of its land area being dominated by forest and tundra. Consequently, its population is highly urbanized, with over 80 percent of its inhabitants concentrated in large and medium-sized cities, many near the southern border. Canada's climate varies widely across its vast area, ranging from arctic weather in the north, to hot summers in the southern regions, with four distinct seasons.

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References

  1. 1 2 CBC Newsworld, Live coverage of the National Act of Remembrance, Ottawa, November 11, 2008: as reported by Maj. George Pearce Ret'd
  2. 1 2 e-Veritas, July 24, 2016, Headdress of the Royal Military College of Canada: A brief history by 8057 Ross McKenzie, former Curator RMC Museum, http://everitas.rmcclub.ca/?p=154491
  3. 1 2 3 4 Boulton, James, J., Head-dress of the Canadian Mounted Police, 1873–2000, Calgary: Bunker to Bunker Pub., c2000., ISBN   1-894255-07-0, pages 89–96
  4. Ross, David, and Robin May, The Royal Canadian Mounted Police 1873–1987, London: Osprey, 1988., ISBN   0-85045-834-X
  5. Summers, Jack, L., Military uniforms in Canada, 1665–1970, Ottawa: National Museum of Man, National Museums of Canada, c1981., ISBN   0-660-10346-X
  6. Gregory, Michael, Compendium of Canadian Regiments: A Civilian’s Perspective, Michaeljohn Gregory, ISBN   0-9688562-0-9 pages 59 to 60
  7. Canadian Forces, A-DH-265-000/AG-001 Canadian Forces Dress Instructions, Department of National Defence, pages 2-2-10 and 2-2-19, http://cs.uwindsor.ca/~fitzpatr/A-DH-265-000.pdf