Musée naval de Québec

Canada's Naval Reserve can proudly claim many significant achievements over the course of its seventy-five-year history in peace and war. One of them, and among the first, is the continued existence of the navy. The colourful story revolves around people, egos, power plays, and politics. The single most important person, and very properly called a "hero," was Walter Hose.

In 1911, Commander Hose was on loan to the Canadian Naval Service, barely one year old. In February 1912, he transferred from the RN to the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN). Shortly after Hose joined the RCN, Rear Admiral Kingsmill, the Director of the Naval Service, came to the west coast on a visit. Knowing that there was little public support for a national navy, Hose proposed a citizen's navy-a naval volunteer reserve. The Rear Admiral gave the following response: "My dear Hose, you don't understand-it can't be done." Notwithstanding that comment, it was done.
[…] Their existence was authorized by an Order-in-Council on 14 May 1914, and they became the Royal Navy Canadian Volunteer Reserve (RNCVR).

At the outbreak of the First World War, the RCN and its month's-old reserve were in no position to offer any significant help to Britain. When Germany began to conduct submarine warfare against merchant ships, the inability of the RN to meet the challenge or to provide effective defence off Canadian shores quickly became apparent, and the RNCVR underwent a rapid expansion. By the end of the war 6,000 men had served in the RNCVR, manning 136 small patrol vessels used for anti-submarine work, minesweeping, and convoy escort duties. The patrol service was commanded by Hose, by then promoted to Captain. However, it was not to last. Following the general demobilization at the end of the war, the RNCVR was disbanded on 15 June 1920.
The need for national economy and war weariness after "the war to end all wars," coupled with no apparent enemy or threat, led to even more drastic defence reductions. Walter Hose […] had to respond.[…] Hose proposed that the Navy be reduced to a single destroyer on each coast, and that the dockyards be reduced to the barest minimum necessary for maintenance and a small training base. To create national naval awareness, he suggested that the Royal Canadian Naval Volunteer Reserve, the RCNVR, known popularly as the "Wavy Navy", be established in major cities across the country. On 1 March 1922, the day after Hose submitted his memorandum, it was initialled by the minister. On 31 January 1923 the Order-in-Council establishing the RCNVR was signed, and the first commission was given on March 14 to Lieutenant Frank Meade to establish a half-company in Montreal. By the end of that year twelve units had been established, and by the time Canada declared war on 10 September 1939 the number had increased to sixteen active units.

[…] In the next battle the enemy was neither political nor financial, but German U-boats and the weather. […] First, when one speaks of "Canada's Navy" or the RCN of the Second World War, it must be remembered that in reality it was the RCNVR. The "Naval Service" had three branches: the regular force RCN; the Royal Canadian Naval Reserve formed exclusively by men whose civilian life and training had been in merchant marine; and the citizen volunteers of the RCNVR. The total prewar strength of all three combined had been less than 5,000. By April 1941, more than half of our mobilized naval strength was RCNVR. By the end of the war more than 100,000 had worn Canada's naval uniform. The pre-war RCN cadre alone was incapable of managing the many demands of that expansion, without parallel in any other naval service. By the end of 1942, fully 48% of the North Atlantic convoy escorts were provided by HMC Ships.

At the end of the war, that had risen to 98%. When newly commissioned corvettes, the backbone of the escorts, first went to sea, as much as three quarters of the ship's company had never before been to sea. […] And yet they and the Navy triumphed […] over the enemy submarines.

With peace once again came change. The first was the amalgamation of the two reserves. On 1 January 1946 the RCNR and RCNVR became the Royal Canadian Navy (Reserve). By the end of 1947 the Soviet Union was identified as a threat, and the Cold War began. The preservation of peace came to depend on deterrence, and that in turn rested on atomic or nuclear weapons. […] People began to talk of a "come as you are" war; a war that would have to be fought without time to mobilize reserves. But the Naval Reserve had not been completely forgotten. In 1952, Canada commissioned five Gate class vessels, which were named after the gates of French fortifications in Canada. Originally designed for opening and closing submarine nets at harbour entrances, they were primarily used for training the seamen of the Canadian Naval Reserve.

HMCS Porte Saint-Jean
Québec Naval Museum Collection
Photo: Department of National Defence

HMCS Porte Québec
Collection of Canadian Forces Fleet School Québec
Photo: Department of National Defence

Display on the Gate class vessels in the Québec Naval Museum
Photo: Québec Naval Museum

The lack of a role, the receding memory of the last war, and budget cuts all had their effect on the RCN(R). Numbers dwindled and equipment grew old without replacement. With unification in 1968 the RCN(R) disappeared along with the distinct services, and became a part of the Canadian Forces. Yet the naval reserve divisions and their personnel persisted. Descending from a varied lineage, the naval reserve has survived to today as the Naval Reserve Formation of Maritime Command. And it has another unique challenge - the manning of the Marine Coastal Defence Vessels (MCDVs), built to replace the Gate class vessels that were phased out in the late 1990s.

No other reserve organization has a comparable full time peacetime operational commitment. In keeping with our past, a future historian will record this too as another "victory."

The History of the Naval Reserve