Communications and Electronics Branch
Branche des communications et de l'électronique (French)
Branch badge
Active	1968–present
Country	Canada
Branch	Canadian Armed Forces
Type	Personnel branch
Role	Military communications
Home station	CFB Kingston
Motto(s)	Velox, versutus, vigilans (Latin for 'swift, skilled, alert')
Colors	French grey, dark blue (camp flag) Scarlet with black facings (RCCS mess dress)
March	"The Mercury March"
Commanders
Colonel-in-chief	Anne, Princess Royal

The Communications and Electronics Branch (French: Branche des communications et de l'électronique) is a personnel branch of the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF). The army component of the branch is designated the Royal Canadian Corps of Signals (French: Corps des transmissions royal du Canada^[1]).

History

Major Wallace Bruce Matthews Carruthers (13 February 1863 – 21 October 1910) was the founder of the Canadian Signalling Corps, forerunner of the Royal Canadian Corps of Signals and the Communications and Electronics Branch. In the 1968 unification of the Canadian Forces, functional similar components of the Royal Canadian Navy, Canadian Army and Royal Canadian Air Force were combined into the new Communications and Electronics Branch.

During the Boer War, Carruthers noted the importance of tactical signaling in a successful campaign. Observing the employment of heliographs, semaphore flags and lamps, he realized there was a need for a unit to provide proper training in the use of these systems. Upon his return to Canada in 1902, he wrote a paper on signaling for the Royal Military College Club and championed an establishment of a signaling Corps. In 1903, the formation of the Canadian Signal Corps was authorized by General Order 167. It was the first Signal Corps in the British Commonwealth and is the forerunner of the Royal Canadian Corps of Signals.

On 3 February 1903, now Major Carruthers was appointed as one of two Inspectors of Signaling. Setting up his headquarters in Kingston, Ontario, he was responsible to the Militia Council for the supervision of instruction and practice of signaling and the inspection of signalers and their equipment. In 1904, the first Provisional School of Signaling was established, with schools held in Kingston, Ottawa, Winnipeg, Montreal, Halifax, London, Quebec and Toronto over the next 2 years.

Training began in earnest in 1905 in summer militia instructional camps or in provisional schools set up in those eight cities. 546 Officers and men from the Rural Corps were trained in semaphore at the summer camps and 68 of those had qualified as signalers over the next few years.

A reorganization of the Corps in 1906 made Carruthers the Canadian Corps of Signal's Commanding Officer. He received the title of Assistant Adjutant General for Signaling

In April 2013, the army component of the branch was officially designated with its historic title, the Royal Canadian Corps of Signals, but it remains a part of the C&E Branch.^[2]

Uniform

• Cap badge: A silver depiction of Mercury with golden lightning bolts on either side placed on a field of blue.^[3]
• Army shoulder title:
  • English: "RCCS" (all uniforms)
  • French: "CTRC" (all uniforms)
• Miscellaneous:
  • The signalman's trade qualification badge (worn on the lower sleeve of the Service Dress jacket) is the only such trade badge that features colours (blue and white) instead of just gold.

Customs and traditions

• Colonel-in-Chief: Anne, Princess Royal

Flag of the Communications and Electronics Branch

• Branch flag: Horizontal bicolour, French grey (Munsell Notation 5PB5/2) over dark blue (Munsell Notation 7.5PB2/2). It is commonly believed that the colours of the flag represent "grey skies over blue waters"; however, the colours were inherited from the officer's Mess Dress uniforms of the Royal Canadian Corps of Signals (RCCS), which were in turn inherited from the 21st Lancers, the first unit of Major Carruthers, founder of the RCCS
• Home station: CFB Kingston, Ontario
• Motto: Latin: Velox Versutus Vigilans, "Swift, Skilled, Alert"); motto inherited from the Royal Canadian Corps of Signals
• Nickname:
  • "Jimmies" – after "Jimmy", the nickname given to the Roman god Mercury as patron (and insignia) of Signals in Commonwealth countries; the origin of this particular sobriquet for the god is unknown; there are a number of theories as to why 'Jimmy' was adopted as a term of endearment for the emblem. The most widely accepted is that it came from a very popular Royal Signals boxer, Jimmy Emblem, who was the British Army Champion in 1924 and represented the Royal Signals Corps from 1921 to 1924.
  • "Sigs" – after the abbreviation of "Signals"
  • "Sig Pigs" – rhyming slang name; sometimes used deprecatingly by non-Signalmen, generally with pride by Signalmen
• Authorized march: "The Mercury March"
• Branch colours: French grey and dark blue
• Miscellaneous:
  • Signals units follow the cavalry practice of naming their units "regiment" for "battalion", "squadron" for "company", and "troop" for "platoon".
  • Trained privates in Signals or Communications units are styled "Signaller" or "Sig" for short.

Training

Occupations

Military occupations and military occupation codes (MOCs) within the branch are listed below. Also listed are the uniform environment restrictions.

Military occupations that have previously existed in the C&E Branch are listed below.

Units

CFS Alert

Staffing at CFS Alert are the responsibility of the Branch. In the past members were drawn by the RCAF or Canadian Army.

Order of precedence

References