Class of 2018: Ceremonial mace-bearer says wicked-looking staff is safe in his hands

Back in the day, the mace was a blunt weapon with a wooden handle and a chunk of stone, copper, bronze, iron or steel affixed to the top. It was crude but effective at doing some serious damage through a knight’s protective armour or chain mail.

Happily, the mace has evolved over the centuries to have a much more pleasant and entirely ceremonial function. You’ll see mace-bearers carrying the shiny staff in parliaments and parades, civic ceremonies and convocations. It’s placed on a special stand on the stage and turned upside down if the Queen or her representative happens to be present.

In the convocation procession, the mace-bearer walks in front of the chancellor as a ceremonial guard, the mace resting on the right shoulder. “The original role of the mace-bearer was to protect the monarch,” says Gavin Peat. “It’s a weapon and it’s still referred to as ‘brandishing the mace.’” The physical education instructor at the Werklund School of Education has been carrying the university’s mace for Werklund and other convocations since 2006.

In his role as mace-bearer, Gavin Peat acts as a ceremonial guard to the presiding chancellor.

Riley Brandt, University of Calgary

As the procession reaches the stage and the piper stops playing, Peat gets to work letting the crowd know the chancellor — the duly appointed authority of convocation — is present and ready to go: “I brandish the mace, north, south, east, and west. I do a complete turn on the stage,” he says. “It isn’t just a little twist of the wrist. I use my full arms to turn it around.”  

The mace, a gift from Chancellor Emeritus Dr. Muriel Kovitz and Dr. David Kovitz in 1979, weighs about 25 pounds. Peat jokes that he’s noticed the occasional dignitary looking a little concerned as he swings it about on stage. “Sometimes I can see people in the front row looking at me and thinking ‘Please don’t hit me!’”

But there’s no reason to worry. Our mace is in good, experienced hands. Before moving to Canada from the U.K. in 2000, Peat carried the mace at John Moore University in Liverpool. “I used to carry it down the Anglican Cathedral. It was a good 400 metres but it felt like a mile and a half when you’re having to parade slowly down the nave.”

Gavin Peat takes a break from his ceremonial duties to pose with a student.

Clayton MacGillivray, Werklund School of Education

Peat grew up in Staffordshire, in the Midlands, soaking up British history and spending family holidays touring Scottish castles. “I’ve always been fascinated with the pageantry and history. I love the ceremonial stuff,” he says. “There’s a lot of protocol that goes with the mace, which sometimes we don’t necessarily follow as much in Canada as we do in the U.K. It is something that people are less familiar with here.”

Cutting a few ceremonial corners doesn’t bother Peat in the least. He loves being part of convocation, being around the students and dignitaries. And he prefers carrying UCalgary’s mace — it’s a bit bigger, a little prettier and perhaps more practical. “Some of them used to have a detachable head,” says Peat. “And that became a problem because sometimes the head came off. With this one the head can’t come off, it’s a one-piece.”