Canadian Boss of the Plains No. 1 Quality -Boer Wars? WW II? more contemporary?

[DNO]

I am always on the hunt for collectibles with an Alberta/Calgary/Canadian West connection. That is why I jumped at this despite certain ambiguities, (size, age, origin).
I need a Brock's Rangers Badge, I have a Southern Alberta Regiment, Calgary Highlanders & a Rocky Mnt. Rangers. I REALLY need an Alberta Americans badge (211th cef)!
I may have been born on the Iowa/Dakota border, but I will-with God as my witness, die a Canadian. :canada:

My collecting was always in the area of medals and uniforms...I like the fact that these items are often named and can be researched. I have a couple of Alberta-related medal groups from the First World War. One is a group of three (standard WWI "trio") to a Lieutenant in the 10th Battalion (raised in Calgary) who was KIA on April 22, 1915 at the Second Battle of Ypres. That was the day of the first use of poison gas by the Germans. This lad was killed leading his platoon in the midnight counterattack on Kitchener's Wood. The group was a lucky find for me.

 

[DNO]

Hi

Never EVEN been to Canada, but I've read a lot of the British Empire's history. The British use two different crowns on their insignia depending on whether the current Monarch is a boy or a girl, the King's Crown and the Queen's Crown. They swapped over n the mid-1950's when King George the VIth died. Canadian governmental bodies would have followed suit where applicable. Like mentioned above, the Canadians use the Maple leaf quite a bit now and have for a long time.

Later

You should visit sometime...Kansas isn't that far away! Actually, I think I have some distant relatives in Kansas.

And you're quite right about the crowns. They change with the monarch, especially with the gender of the monarch. Since the British monarch is the titular Head of State of Canada, Canada complies with all changes in design and regalia that deal with the monarch.

 

[Rick Blaine]

Thanks again, guys

Thanks for the welcome! I'm a little bit of a military historian so I know how to guess at the story of things given a few clues, but I don't really know much about 1800-1950 and the commonwealth isn't really my area of expertise. I'm just a southern boy from Alabama, USA, with a black belt in Google Fu and a little too much time on my hands.

I am a Ga. boy myself, this is a great board & you sound as though you have much info to share.

Hi

Never EVEN been to Canada, but I've read a lot of the British Empire's history. The British use two different crowns on their insignia depending on whether the current Monarch is a boy or a girl, the King's Crown and the Queen's Crown. They swapped over n the mid-1950's when King George the VIth died. Canadian governmental bodies would have followed suit where applicable. Like mentioned above, the Canadians use the Maple leaf quite a bit now and have for a long time.

Later

DO NOT deny yourself a trip to the Canadian Rockies... words fail me, to say it is merely spectacular is damning with faint praise!
...So in your learned opossum which is this badge, a Kings' or Queens'?

My collecting was always in the area of medals and uniforms...I like the fact that these items are often named and can be researched. I have a couple of Alberta-related medal groups from the First World War. One is a group of three (standard WWI "trio") to a Lieutenant in the 10th Battalion (raised in Calgary) who was KIA on April 22, 1915 at the Second Battle of Ypres. That was the day of the first use of poison gas by the Germans. This lad was killed leading his platoon in the midnight counterattack on Kitchener's Wood. The group was a lucky find for me.

What a fascinating and significant find. Coupled with no small amount of focused, productive research, no doubt. I think many of us here are (latent) born museum curators! I myself own a hat once owned by WWII US General Wm. Kunzig & a outstanding Biltmore fedora (cav edge) that was owned by either the senior or junior Mr. Simpson of "Simpson-Sears" fame.

 

[DNO]

It's a king's crown, Rick.

 

[Rick Blaine]

It's a king's crown, Rick.

...so, might I surmise pre 1952? [huh]

Thanks!

 

[DNO]

Based solely on the crown, any time between 1901 and 1952.

 

[SteveFiddle]

So, I took a close look at my father's RCMP Stetson. It has a 5" rounded crown when open, rather than the flat-topped crown of your example. The hat band looks pretty much identical, oxblood leather with leather wrapping on the buckle loop. However the hatband does not have that little tab on the front, since the RCMP and it's predecessors (North West Mounted Police and Royal North West Mounted Police) never wore cap badges on their felt hats. The sweatband is also leather, with the same Stetson makers mark on one side. On the other side of the sweatband it is stamped "RCMP 1962". So I would suggest that you have a really nice Stetson, but not an RCMP Stetson.

The "National Troopers" badge is not from an actual Canadian agency - it may be from somewhere else in the Commonwealth.

 

[Rick Blaine]

So, I took a close look at my father's RCMP Stetson. It has a 5" rounded crown when open, rather than the flat-topped crown of your example. The hat band looks pretty much identical, oxblood leather with leather wrapping on the buckle loop. However the hatband does not have that little tab on the front, since the RCMP and it's predecessors (North West Mounted Police and Royal North West Mounted Police) never wore cap badges on their felt hats. The sweatband is also leather, with the same Stetson makers mark on one side. On the other side of the sweatband it is stamped "RCMP 1962". So I would suggest that you have a really nice Stetson, but not an RCMP Stetson.

The "National Troopers" badge is not from an actual Canadian agency - it may be from somewhere else in the Commonwealth.

Thank You! Where did your' Father serve?

 

[SteveFiddle]

You're welcome! He served out West to start - first in rural Alberta, just outside of Edmonton, then spent a few years in mining towns in the Rockies. After that came several years working plain clothes in Manitoba, and then some time at HQ in Ottawa. They used to get moved around more in those days!

The felt hat must have been the second issued to him, since he joined in the early 1950s. They are called Stetson's by the members, since they were originally made by that company, but in the RCMP manuals they are referred to simply as the felt hats. Members of the NWMP started wearing felt hats in the 1870s, since their uniform hats didn't offer any protection from sun or rain. They just bought whatever hat they liked to wear on patrol - I've seen photos of everything from US Cavalry campaign hats, to early cowboy hats of various brim widths and bashes. Even something that looks like a short-crowned sombraro! After a few years, the Force settled on the Stetson model and four-pinched shape they still wear today.