Ric Hall’s Latest Discoveries

At present, Ric is reviewing the early editions of the RCMP Quarterly (commenced in 1933) and old “Scarlet & Gold” (commended in 1919) magazines from the RCMP Veterans’ Association.

In so doing, he is discovering these old editions contain a wealth of historical insight to the early days of the Force.  Many stories are told first hand from Force veterans who were involved.

For this webpage, Ric has provided the following images from the past and are provided for your viewing pleasure.

According to Ric, Veteran Dan Lemieux discovered the following two images in the 1932 edition of the Scarlet & Gold Magazine.

The following cartoon appeared in the July 1936 edition of the Quarterly with the corresponding comments – “Another applicant on attempting to join the Force, requested that he be engaged as a Sergeant Major, stating that he had been informed that Senior Non-Commissioned Officers were not required to groom horses, an outrageous libel ion the ‘back-bone of the Force.'”

Ric’s Comments – Not much has changed, upon graduating from Depot we still get the ones who want immediately to be an officer, go on the Ride, ERT or be “Secret Agents.”

According to Ric, “the cover design of the Scarlet & Gold magazine seemed pretty standard in the early years, the horse and ride as illustrated below.”

Illustration of the 1937 edition of the RCMP Veterans’ Association’s Scarlet & Gold magazine cover (Source of image – Ric Hall’s Photo Collection).

However, the 1938 Scarlet & Gold magazine was different.  The head shot of a member.  This image would continue as a cover until 1949.

Photograph of the 1938 cover of the RCMP Veterans’ Association’s Scarlet & Gold magazine (Source of photo – Ric Hall’s Photo Collection).

Inside the cover of this magazine edition, there was an unusual reference to the photograph.  The identity of the member is unknown at this time.

From the narrative message above, it appears that the Canadian government realized the commercial value of associating the image of the Force with an Canadian exported product.

The commercialization of the Force image was also used in the 1940s edition of the Scarlet & Gold magazine to promote the Calgary Beer company.

1939 image of a Mountie image beside a Calgary bottle of beer (Source of image – Ric Hall’s Photo Collection).

There is no indication that the Force directly benefitted from promotion of specific products.