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The executive curl, or the "Elliot's Eye", is the name given to the ring above a naval officer's gold lace or braid insignia. It originated with the Royal Navy.
When the Royal Naval Reserve was formed in 1859, its officers were differentiated from regular officers with rank braid that was half the width and formed two waved lines, one superimposed upon the other with a six-pointed star in place of the curl.
In 1903, the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve was instituted and the officers were distinguished with waved stripes worn parallel to each other, surmounted by a squared waved “curl”.
Officers of the Women’s Royal Naval Service wore sky-blue lace with a diamond-shaped loop. The Royal Fleet Auxiliary also employs a diamond in lieu of the curl.
Although in the Royal Navy the curl is now common to all officers (less those of its associated Sea Cadets), some other navies who copied the custom have restricted its use to their . While some navies placed insignia above the braid to indicate specialist branches, Commonwealth navies used coloured cloth beneath the gold lace. Coloured branch distinction, first introduced in 1863, went out of use except for the medical, nursing, medical administration and technical branches, on 31 December 1959.
Although 19 of 22 Commonwealth of Nations navies use the executive curl, according to Jane's Fighting Ships, 55 of the world's navies use the insignia on officer’s uniform in their naval forces; Argentine Navy, Australia, Bahamas, Bangladesh Navy, Barbados, Belgian Navy, Brazilian Navy, Brunei, Canada, Colombian Navy, Congo (DRC), Cyprus Navy, Denmark, Estonian Navy, Fiji, Gabon, Ghana, Hellenic Navy, Iceland, Indian Navy, Iran, Italian Navy, Jamaica, Kenya Navy, Latvia, Lithuania, Malaysia, Mauritania, Mexican Navy, Myanmar Navy, Morocco, Mozambique, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigerian Navy, Norway, Pakistan Navy, Papua New Guinea, Panama, Polish Navy, Portuguese Navy, Qatar, Romania, Slovenian Navy, South Africa, Spanish Navy (except during the 1931-1939 Spanish Republic), Sri Lanka, Swedish Navy, Thailand, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey, Royal Navy, Uruguay, Venezuela and Vietnam.
The navies that do not use the curl may replace it with a star, as in the cases of the Chilean Navy, the German Navy, the Irish Naval Service, the Russian Navy, the United States Navy, and winter uniforms of the Chinese Navy and the Indonesian Navy; or with other devices, as in the cases of the Finnish Navy, the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force, the Republic of Korea Navy and shoulder boards of the French Navy.
When it was created in 1910, it was natural for the emerging Canadian Navy to adopt the same unwavering rings with the executive curl for the permanent navy and subsequently the “wavy” shaped rings for the Royal Canadian Naval Volunteer Reserve (RCNVR) and the rings of narrow interwoven gold lace for the Royal Canadian Navy Reserve. Sea Cadet Corps officers had a small anchor in place of the executive curl.
Following World War II, the Royal Canadian Navy was reorganized with a single reserve component. In 1946, the distinctive wavy gold braid of the reserves gave way to the straight braided executive curl of the regular force until 1968. With the integration of the Canadian Armed Forces, unembellished straight braid became the common rank insignia for all officers of both the regular and reserve forces. The executive curl rank insignia was reserved for navy mess dress from 1968 to 2010 and used historical, rather than standard, rank structures, having both acting sub-lieutenants and sub-lieutenants wear one single bar of rank on the sleeve with the executive curl.
On March 5, 2010, the House of Commons unanimously passed a private members' motion recommending, "That the government should consider reinstating the navy executive curl on its uniforms." Guy Lauzon, member of Parliament for Stormont-Dundas-South Glengarry, explained that the insignia is common to most nations that have a monarch as a head of state. Subsequently, in recognition of the Canadian Naval Centennial, The Honourable Peter MacKay, Minister of National Defence, authorized the use of the executive curl for the Canadian Navy on Battle of Atlantic Sunday, May 2, 2010. After 42 years absence, the executive curl insignia became effective again for service dress uniforms on June 11, 2010, on the occasion of the Pacific Canadian Naval Centennial International Fleet Review parade of nations in Victoria, British Columbia.
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