15th Light Horse

 How's this for an obscure subject?  My original idea for picking up a couple of sets of the Scarlet Patrol had been to build up a unit of Canadian cavalry (Canadian Mounted Rifles for example) to add a bit of variety to my early WWI CEF.  However I was tired of painting khaki and wanted an excuse to paint more redcoats.  The obvious choice would be more Mounties, however I've already got more Mounties than I'm likely to use in a single game!  So instead I went looking for an alternative.

I settled on the 15th (Alberta) Light Horse, a volunteer cavalry unit of the Canadian Non-Permanent Active Militia, the precursor to the modern Canadian Army.  This uniform was only in use for a few years, roughly from when the regiment was raised in 1905 to when everything changed with the outbreak of WWI.  The 15th Light Horse was raised in my home town of Calgary, with famous Calgarian Col James Walker as their colonel.

The 15th's uniform was almost identical to that of the RWNMP, with the main distinction that they had yellow epaulets and collars, and a double yellow stripe on their trousers.  I referred to the Osprey on the CEF in WWI and this image from the MilArt blog, showing several of the pre-WWI Western Canadian cavalry regiments.  The sergeant on the left is from the 15th Light Horse.

In the early part of the 20th Century, from the South African War through WWI and into the '20's, the flat-brimmed Stetson with the Montana peak, was associated with Canadian cavalry in the way that the bush hat pinned up on one side is associated with the Australian army.  However, more than a century on, this is largely forgotten except by history nerds like me!

After a series of name changes and amalgamations, the 15th Light Horse was incorporated into the South Alberta Light Horse in 1954.

Here are a few closeups of the 15th.  Troopers on parade.

A firing line.

And advancing.

And I still added a few Mounties to my collection anyway 8^)

These two also got a bit of paint slopped on them.  The mad scientist is from Pulp Figures and the chap in the blue suit is Jewish-Canadian adventurer Two Gun Cohen from Copplestone Castings.