2nd Bn Coldstream Guards

Any 'Old Coldstreamers" here???

Now, if I am not mistaken, didn't the Coldstream Guards wear caps with a very low visor so that the fellows had to hold their head very erect, even tilted back slightly, in order to see? Black with gold, or perhaps red, trim as I recall. Very smart. Did tend to lend an air of arrogance to them, admittedly, but then...well gosh...they're Coldstream Guards!!!!

coldstream guards,black forage cap with white band,s/nco,s and above had gold trim on peak,dave.

I believe the caps were 'slashed' to give that appearance, the were not issued as so.

The guards caps were issued with the appearance of being slashed..It was the AAS caps that tended to be ILLEGALLY slashed.I know.It cost me a few bob

Translation on 'slashed'....does this mean one could somehow have the brim/visor altered in some way to create that low-sitting profile (and the subsequent holding your head up high...and old disco tune, as well LOL). And, if so, wouldn't it be patently obvious one had done so and hence there'd be consequences?

Dave...thanks for the clarification on the colouring of the visors...I do seem to recall now that junior ranks had a white band and Sr. NCO's and higher gold (not sure where I'm getting the image of red from...).

I would like an ex Guardsman to clarify the question of 'slashed peaks!

Are the dress hats issued with what we ordinary soldiers class as a slashed peak? Or is the peak modified?


I copied this from ebay.

Well I'm no Guardsman (5'7"), closest I got o the Guards was on the Suez cock up where I was posted to 2 btn Scot's Guards, 3 Inf Div.
Anyhow a 'slashed' peak is a modified peak, what is done is to remove the peak by cutting the stitching, remove the peak, cut about 1" or if you really want to slash it 1 .5", following the curvature of the peak. Then reinsert the peak and make sure the ends are pushed up into the cap band to give the amount of peak showing you desire. Then restitch it. Better still get your buddy to do it for you. Lastly be prepared to buy a new hat if the RSM happens to be in a bad mood. Check his cap, it will be slashed.
Len(Ciphers)



You don't argue with this guy

exelent postcard len,stephen,re the brigade of guards,the greniders have a red band around thier hat,the scots guards have a red and white chequered band,the irish guards have a green band, welsh guards have a plain black hat, hope this helps dave.

I did my depot with the Canadian Guards. The caps were not slashed, but they did have the the steeply slanted peak. Gdsmn/L/cpl had one brass rim trim, Cpl had two, Sgt had three . Can't remember what a Colour Sgt and upwards had. Also WO 2's and RSM both wore swords where as in other units only the RSM wore a sword. Only time you'd see an RSM drawing his sword was to teach the officers proper drill. It was an education to see this happen after a parade was over.

Quote :

Anyhow a 'slashed' peak is a modified peak, what is done is to remove the peak by cutting the stitching, remove the peak, cut about 1" or if you really want to slash it 1 .5", following the curvature of the peak. Then reinsert the peak and make sure the ends are pushed up into the cap band to give the amount of peak showing you desire. Then restitch it. Better still get your buddy to do it for you. Lastly be prepared to buy a new hat if the RSM happens to be in a bad mood. Check his cap, it will be slashed.

No need to remove the peak..Just cut about an inch of stitching on either side and push the ends up then re-stitch.Never heard of a guardsman having to buy a new hat,but plenty of A/Ts did,me included

dandc wrote:

exelent postcard len,stephen,re the brigade of guards,the greniders have a red band around thier hat,the scots guards have a red and white chequered band,the irish guards have a green band, welsh guards have a plain black hat, hope this helps dave.

Thanks Dave...I wasn't thinking so much about the band around the hat as I was the trim around the peak/visor.

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A fine looking lot of lads (mostly RC Sigs) graduating from the Cdn. Gds. Depot in Camp Petawawa. Feb 1962. Notice the trim putties, shinny boots and ever so proper Guards types.

In the front row of recruits I am the second one in from the left. The Sgt with his pace stick and L/cpl Rafters ( a real littl a** hole) standing at attenion at the left don't count as recruits.

You're the one with your cap set at a jaunty angle, then? The guy to your left, third in from the left, his cap is set at that low on the brow angle we're talking about, much more so than the others.

Stephen Lock wrote:

You're the one with your cap set at a jaunty angle, then? The guy to your left, third in from the left, his cap is set at that low on the brow angle we're talking about, much more so than the others.

Probably because, it was sitting on his ears.

Hardrats. Thanks for the picture of the Guards Depot,it brought back memories of when I was a driver with 8 Coy RCASC,we supplied the transport to the ranges etc.They were mostly off their rocker weren't they,did you still have to have a bedside check to make sure that your pyjamas were properly ironed.The drill sgt on the left with the moustache looks like WO2 Levesque, he was the exception and could be quite human at times, but the RSM looks like "Rock" McManus he was definitely a looney,I often wonder how they fare when they retire?

Hey TonyE. You got it correct. Yes the pyjama's had to be ironed. Oh lordie, had forgotten about that one. Also the evening shine parades in the hallway. With the piquette office asking all sorts of weird questions. I think the Rock had gone onto be RSM at RMC in Kingston before this picture was made. And yes that is WO 2 Levesque. He ended up being an RSM in the van Doo's. He died a year or two back, I saw his obit on the Guards site. Question for you. Did you know Seymour (Blackie) Blackader?

Hardrations wrote:

Stephen Lock wrote:

You're the one with your cap set at a jaunty angle, then? The guy to your left, third in from the left, his cap is set at that low on the brow angle we're talking about, much more so than the others.

Probably because, it was sitting on his ears.

Either because the QM issued him a too-large cap or he had a small head to begin with? This is when having jug-ears comes in handy, I suppose...it keeps one's cap from slipping down around one's upper lip or something...

Hardrations wrote:

Hey TonyE. You got it correct. Yes the pyjama's had to be ironed. Oh lordie, had forgotten about that one. Also the evening shine parades in the hallway. With the piquette office asking all sorts of weird questions. I think the Rock had gone onto be RSM at RMC in Kingston before this picture was made. And yes that is WO 2 Levesque. He ended up being an RSM in the van Doo's. He died a year or two back, I saw his obit on the Guards site. Question for you. Did you know Seymour (Blackie) Blackader?

Curious minds want to know....exactly what sort of "weird questions" would the piquette officer ask? The mind boggles at the possibilities!

I am also suprised that rough'n'tough Guardsmen wore PJs to bed!!

Of course, that in turn reminds me of the Army-issue pajamas my dad had; pale blue cotton with a draw-string waist and a fly that gaped WIDE open unless pulled over snugly and the draw-string waist secured snugly and even then the trousers had a tendency to...uhm...gap. The tops of the pajamas were quite roomy and buttoned down the front. Dad, being a Suppy Tech, managed to score a few sets for me to wear as a young'un. Didn't have to iron mine, though

Being a pre- and later post-adolescent boy, however, I didn't particularly care for the way the trousers gapped open....especially in the morning, if you catch my drift! Thank The Deity for dressing gowns!!!

The Canadian Guards were formed in October 1953,chosen inantry NCOs were sent to the real Guards Depot for brainwashing oops sorry that should be indoctrination. I was posted to Petawawa in July 54,not long after that one of the guys from my basic training pln got posted to The Cdn Gds depot as a cook,he had to attend the nightly shine parade where they had to answer questions on regimental history, there couldn't have been many questions in less than a year's existence.Yes we were issued blue pyjamas,I found a pair of trousers from them last weekend cleaning out a clothes drawer, never wore them to bed,they were good under battledress trousers in the sub zero winters we had over there.I have met Blackie Blackadar in passing when I was in Camp Borden,but did not have much to do with him.

The Guards also recruited from the Guards Brigade in the UK. I knew one fella ex Irish Guards but for the life of me can only remember his first name (Tony). Blackie is here in Wpg and quite involved with the RCASC Association. I get to see him once a month at the monthly RCASC breakfast at the Army-Navy on Empress St. He's also involved with the WW 2 Merchant Navy Vets as that's where he was in the war. Should I say hello for you?
If so send me a PM and I'll mention your name to him.

A bit of interesting info for you. Fort Chambly( I'm assuming you were in Fort Chambly with transport) is used as a clearance center for Russians, Ukranians, etc claiming German heritage and getting instant German citizenship.

Hardrations wrote:

The Guards also recruited from the Guards Brigade in the UK. I knew one fella ex Irish Guards but for the life of me can only remember his first name (Tony).

Didn't the Irish Guards also have that low-on-the-brow visor on their caps? I seem to recall they did.

Hardrations wrote:

A bit of interesting info for you. Fort Chambly( I'm assuming you were in Fort Chambly with transport) is used as a clearance center for Russians, Ukranians, etc claiming German heritage and getting instant German citizenship.

How could one possibly prove one had German heritage? Good grief, this conjures up images and memories of a certain notorious period in German history, doesn't it? Proving one's "racial" heritage in order to benefit from the German State....yikes.

Since the fall of the Berlin Wall and the reunification of East and West Germany, there have been a host of social problems arising. I recently read somewhere, actually, that a large percentage of both formerly East Germans as well as West Germans favour a return, of all things, to a divided Germany because, certainly in the view of West Germans, "Easties" having access to West German infrastructure, programs, etc have depleted the treasury, compromised their own identity or some such, and there is a general feeling things were just 'better' prior to reunification. Well, yeah, for the West!!!

Many of the former camps are now, apparently, resettlement camps for ethnically German Russians, Poles, Ukrainians, etc. The old PMQs in Hemer, I've heard, is now housing for this population and they are NOT well-accepted by the locals at all. High crime area etc. Bit of a ghetto, I take it.

I think it was Hardrations, actually, who mentioned a couple of months ago the two camps in Deilinghofen are now resettlement camps for, of all things, Ethiopians! I can't quite figure that one out but I am guessing an influx of "Schwartzes" into Deilinghofen has not sat well with Deilinghofeners! They barely tolerated the Canadians being there LOL

The whole 'experiement' involving the importation of 'guest workers' (gastarbeiters) from Turkey, the former Yugoslavia, Romania, Greece, Northern Italy, the Balkans etc during the boom years in Germany (1970s) to fill jobs while a good temporary solution I suppose has since proven disastrous in some urban centres.

The sons and daughters of these gastarbeiters, many of whom were born and raised in Germany and see themselves as "German", are not accepted as German by Germans. They are often denied good jobs etc. and are just not that integrated into mainstream German life. Add into the mix that many of them are also Muslim and there is a recipe for social upheaval.

Many of the Turkish neighbourhoods, for instance, in the larger cities are little more than ghettos. Did no one learn anything over the last 70-odd years??? Not just since the war (60 years) but from the years preceding the war. Will German Muslims eventually become the modern-day German Jew? I think there is a real risk of that.

The social and political unrest created by the segregation from German civic life is going to have some serious consequences within that population and I think it will carry over into this Russian et al population as well....

[quote="Stephen Lock"][quote="Hardrations"]I think it was Hardrations, actually, who mentioned a couple of months ago the two camps in Deilinghofen are now resettlement camps for, of all things, Ethiopians! I can't quite figure that one out but I am guessing an influx of "Schwartzes" into Deilinghofen has not sat well with Deilinghofeners! They barely tolerated the Canadians being there LOL/quote



Got it wrong Stephen. Fort Prince of Wales is no longer and what is left of Fort McLeod is mainly industrial park. Some of the barracks in McLeod that are left have Congolese claiming political asylum. Fort P of W's was briefly used before destruction for Rumanian's prior to the fall of Communism. In the case of people from the east claiming German heritage, you have to remember that the Nazi Govt during the war declared them German, brought them to Germany on the retreat back. There is a census taken in the Ukraine by the Nazi Govt during the occupation of all German decent residents which can be found on Goggle. My wife and her family can be found on this census. It even includes her grandparents who were in the Russian Gulag at the time. So there is a sense of something being owed to these folks from Germany. Also many of these people on receiving German Citizenship and a whooping amount of cash, quickly put into immigrate to Canada. We see many of them coming here to Manitoba, where they can get 7 acres of land, a cow or two and are happy. They tend to settle in the south where German is a common language among the Mennonites. Aha you say how come they speak German. Many of these families spoke German with in the family. Also they tend to have a trade so make good immigrants to here.

Ahhhh...yes, Congolese, not Ethiopians....the ol' memory isn't what it used to...uh...used to....uhm....What???

I didn't know Fort PoW was no more, demolished. How sad. I was aware Macleod was an industrial park or, as you point out "what's left of it"...that, too, I was not aware of. I guess I had it in my head that both camps, by and large, were relatively intact and being used as light industrial. Hearing, from you I thought but perhaps elsewhere, that one of them was being used as a holding area sort of thing for Congolese asylum seekers (don't know what the story would be there...the Congo was once Belgian territory so you'd think they'd go there). I seem to recall something about Rumanians as well.

I was somewhat aware of the WWII naming of certain Eastern European populations as "German"...the Sudetenland comes to mind immediately. Of course various territories got bounced back and forth so many times between Germany and France and Germany and Hungary and Germany and Russia it's little wonder.

I was aware that Mennonites, as well as Hutterites and the Amish, speak a dialect of German even though they came from Russia. They were never really "Russian".

As for once receiving German citizenship and "a whopping amount of cash" immediately hightailing it to Canada...that seems a bit -- I dunno -- crass? Opportunistic? Something along those lines.

Seriously...do they still get 7 acres of land and a cow or two? This seems like something out the 19th Century or early 20th re attracting immigrants from Eastern Europe out to Western Canada to homestead.

I quite "get" the speaking of German by certain Eastern European populations because, at some point or several points in history the areas in which they lived were German, and were for a considerable swack of time.

We likewise had a fairly significant German immigrant population in Calgary in the late 19th/early 20th century, then of course WWII came, they were viewed as "suspect aliens" or whatever the term was, some were interred just like the Japanese were. I think German immigration took a nose-dive for a while and it wasn't until the 50's when it swung back up again around here.

Reminisce: 1970 Prix LeClerc Competition:

Competitors  (49 years later reckon some players have been promoted beyond recognition)

a.  2 Coldm Gds Teams (2 Sects make the UK National Team)  BRONZE Runners-up

1 Sect: Sgts Wilkinson, Wood, L/Sgt Mooney, L/Cpl Baker, Gdsm: Seldon, Mace, Jones, Mason, Vickers, Taylor
2 Sect: Sgts Sutton, Mathews, L/Sgts Roper, Ord, Cpl Horwood, L/Cpls Humphrey, Burns, Gdsm Westwood, Coe, King
Reserves:  L/Sgt Manley  GdsmDanowski, Lawley, Chapman

b.  2 Royal Canadian Regiment (2 Sects make the CA National Team)  *GOLD Winners

1 Sect:  Sgt Pilkie, Cpl Lauzon, Masschele, Shears, Ptes Bates, Elgie, Ethier, Spragg, Tutty
2 Sect:  WOs MacKenzie, Zinck Cpl Compagnon, Hennick  Ptes Curry, McManus, Madronic, Pilgrim, Reynolds, Weber
Reserves:  Sgt O'Mara Ptes Anderson, Knowlton, Lavigne

(A *Gold LeClerc plaque and 22 individual Gold medals)