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The birth of the Paddy Wagon was the result of a dream of the first members of the unit. The "Kapital Kops" unit had grown to seven members. The unit name was changed to the 'Tunis Keystone Kops'. Eventually a white shirt was introduced to replace the wool tunic when parading during the summer months.
A sample of a sleeve patch of the white shirts is below.
In the last few years membership and interest within the unit has been increasing. In the past year, the unit has had the Paddy Wagon repainted
and other improvements made. This past summer(2005) the unit purchased a new trailer which made the unit resemble the typical "Hollywood Keystone Kops"
as it owned two trailers but did not have a vehicle to pull either.
In the year 2000, Tangier, Moila, Akdar, Midian, and Zamora Temples were in the process of creating
an international group of Keystone Kop units. Tunis Keystone Kops joined the group making the International Shrine Keystone Kops Association truly international.
THE FORCE
The unit consists of active, veteran, and honourary members. The active members must live up to the rules and regulation of our bylaws. They attend all the sanctioned events with some exceptions allowed by the Top Kop. The veterans are the members that created and built the unit. These Nobles are dues paying and participate at many of the events. The bylaws have a stated criteria for a member to become a veteran.
The honourary members are generally the underkover kops who perform the required tasks to get us to and from events. Together, the active, the veterans, and the honourarie make up the Unit.
In the year 2002, Kopper Roy Gilchrist designed and created a plaque which is on display at the Shrine Centre. The plaque identifies all members of the unit and their badge number from the unit's conception to the present day.
There are pictures in the photo section of the "Real Kop" Roy Gilchrist presenting the plaque to the Kops.
The TUNIS KEYSTONE KOPS and their BADGE NUMBERS
ACTIVE MEMBERS
Ellis Lindsay 028 Jack Baxter 030
Jim Birtch 032 Ewart Thornhill 033
Ken Watters 035 Dave Crews 034
Ted Ogilvie 036 Jim Nolan 037
Garry Harper 022 Graham Oldford 039
Norm Skinner 038
THE VETERANS
Jim Young 023 Hal Wright 013
Larry Craig 020 Les White 001
Roy Gilchrist 006 Richard Rothwell 009
Don Lewis 019 John Searle 029
The TUNIS Keystone Kops Pin
A Brief History
Two Nobles, Les White and Wray Hughes, "KHARTUM" Kops from Winnipeg, started the Tunis Keystone Kops. At this time interest in the unit was growing in Tunis and the unit membership increased in size.
Illustrious Sir Len Coulter granted them a charter and the Shrine lent them some money to form and build the unit. The new members paid a tailor to make "made to measure" uniforms for each of them.
The unit was born and initially was called the 'Kapital Kops'. The "Kapital Kops" made a name
for itself by attending many events.
The Paddy Wagon
While attending parades, the unit Koppers took photographs of vehicles used by other Kop units. The Kops were on a continuous search for a vehicle.
Then one cold spring Saturday some of the members were visiting a truck garage. There, they saw the dream come true. Beside the garage was parked an old model "T".
For a nominal sum, the old model "T" was purchased and was hauled back to Kopper Tommy Thompson's house in Ottawa.
Here all the metal was taken apart and sandblasted. From the parts, a frame with wheels was assembled. The original motor was taken out and replaced by a Datsun motor.
An automatic transmission was installed. With the help of the Kops' Ladies and friends, the Kops put in dollars and many hours to create the present day Tunis Keystone Kop Paddy Wagon
or "Black Bandit" as some Koppers prefer to call it.
Charter Member January 2001
International Shrine Keystone Kops Association
Is this the Tunis Desk Kop Working....????
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