Red Serge
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Red Serge is the formal and ceremonial uniform of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. It consists of a scarlet military dress-style coat, replete with a low neck collar, brass buttons, and golden braided ornamentation with a white cotton T-shirt underneath. The riding breeches (pants) are "midnight blue" (virtually black) with exaggerated bulges at the hips and 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, a chocolate brown wide-brimmed stetson with a glass-flat brim (prior to 1904, a pith helmet was standard), and the ever-present side-arm 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.
An RCMP officer wearing the Red Serge is an internationally recognized Canadian icon.
The Red Serge is not worn when an officer is on duty during a normal shift, but reserved for occasions such as civic ceremonies, as a visual representative of the security force for government dignitaries, and during public relations–related special events such as school career days.
The Red Serge is also worn with pride by the Members during special personal events, such as the wedding ceremony of a fellow Member, 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, foregoing the more traditional tuxedo. Though not as common, if the bride is a Member she may also wear her Red Serge on her wedding day.
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There was a 1986 TV Show on CBC with this title.
