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DRILL AND POP REHEARSALS
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FOURTEEN
V. LOOKING SPIFFY
Next came the visit by the tailors to take measurements for the ceremonial or No. 1 Dress
as it is traditionally designated. It consisted of a high-necked jacket of mid-thigh length with
full-length sleeves and navy-blue trousers with red stripes down each external side-seam.
All the buttons on the jacket were of brass. No formation signs are worn with ceremonial
dress. A maroon cummerbund with a tassel that went round the waist over the sword belt,
if worn, was then part of the dress ensemble, though for the first Commissioning Parade,
the cummerbund was canary-yellow. A pair of brass collar dogs of the respective arms, in
this case Infantry only, was affixed to the collar. It turned out that the collar dogs were not
ordered in mirror image pairs and this situation remained for about a year after the First
Batch was commissioned. Epaulettes were of gold braid sans shoulder titles. The ensemble
was completed with a pair of snow white gloves. The cadets would be issued with their first
peak caps—of ceremonial blue with red piping—but to be worn with a white band until after
the Commissioning Parade. The cap badge was standard SIR with the motto “Yang Pertama
Dan Utama” (First and Foremost). Boots at this stage were leather sole combat boots with
steel studs as worn by the rank-and-file. There was to be a fitting later, but no chance of
full dress rehearsals in the personally tailored No. 1 Dress. They were delivered dangerously
close to the parade and had to be sent for laundering. Working up to the full dress rehearsals
was done in No.3 Dress, but for the actual full dress rehearsals of which there were two or
three very stressful ones, including the officers who would be on parade until the cadets took
over, No.1 Dress uniforms were borrowed from 1 and 2 SIR.
The cadets would go on parade with leather-soled combat boots, but for the Commissioning
Ceremony two days later, as officers in No.1 Dress, the dress code called for George boots.
LTA Hamid Khan, the QM was seen to dash into ‘A’ Company square on the day before
the Commissioning Parade in a utility vehicle. He got out and announced loudly that he was
delivering the George boots. It was rash of him, but he was fighting against an inflexible
deadline. After the Commissioning Parade, the newly commissioned officers would go home
and report directly to the Istana two days later for the Commissioning Ceremony with their
invited guests, so this was the last chance he would have for distributing the boots. As soon
as the cadets heard his announcement, they mobbed the vehicle and LTA Hamid lost control.
The cadets had the good sense to realise that they had better get themselves organised or
they would be the ultimate losers, so they quietened down when he started screaming for
order. Fortunately, the boots had been tagged with the cadets names according to size and
so they eventually got distributed, because most of the cadets were then in the company
premises.