A History of the Australian Naval and Sea Cadet Movement 1863 – 1952

University of New South Wales Canberra Seamanship and citizenship: a history of the Australian naval and sea cadet movement 1863 – 1952 Frans Karel de Laat Thesis is prepared in requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy September 2013 i Copyright Statement I hereby grant the University of New South Wales or its agents the right to archive and to make available my thesis or dissertation in whole or part in the University libraries in all forms of media, now all here after known, subject to the provisions of the Copyright act 1968. I retain all proprietary rights, such as patent rights. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis or dissertation. I also authorise University Microfilms to use the 350 word abstract of my thesis in Dissertation Abstracts International. I have either used no substantial portions of copyright material in my thesis or I have obtained permission to use copyright material; where permission has not been granted I have applied/will apply for a partial restriction of the digital copy of my thesis or dissertation. Frans Karel de Laat Canberra, November 2013 ii Authenticity Statement I hereby certify that the Library deposit digital copy is a direct equivalent of the final officially approved version of my thesis. No emendation of content has occurred and if there are any minor variations in formatting, they are the result of the conversion to digital format. Frans Karel de Laat Canberra, November 2013 iii Originality Statement I hereby declare that this submission is my own work and to the best of my knowledge it contains no materials previously published or written by another person, or substantial portions of material which have been accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma at UNSW or any other educational institutions, except where due acknowledgement is made in the thesis. Any contribution made to the research by others, with whom I have worked at UNSW or elsewhere, is explicitly acknowledged in this thesis. I also declare that the intellectual content of this thesis is the product of my own work, except to the extent that assistance from others in the project's design and conception or in style, presentation and linguistic expression is acknowledged. Frans Karel de Laat Canberra, November 2013 iv Abstract This thesis is about the genesis and development of the Australian naval and sea cadet movement between 1863 and 1952. During this period the movement came into being when individual cadets joined colonial naval brigades in New South Wales and Victoria in the early 1860s. It only became recognisable as a movement, however, when separate branches of defence-based naval cadet units and community-based sea cadet units were formed between 1898 and 1910. The movement ceased to exist in this dual form in 1952 when the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) assumed responsibility for both branches of the movement. This thesis argues that the existence of the officially sanctioned part-time Naval Reserve Cadet (NRC) branch of the naval and sea cadet movement pre-disposed the RAN to question the need for community-based sea cadets for the first half of the twentieth century. From its inception, the navy took full responsibility for the organisation, control, personnel and funding of its defence component of the movement. In contrast, the Australian Naval Board consistently resisted the efforts of the community-created sea cadet branch to garner identical input in these four areas. The fundamental reason for the navy’s reluctance to become involved in the organisation and administration of the community-based sea cadet branch was its potential duplication of the training and recruitment role of the NRC. From 1900 to 1920, community- based sea cadet organisers, particularly those forming nautical offshoots of the church- sponsored Boys’ Brigade, engaged in nautical training as a means of developing citizenship. Because of this maritime emphasis, they received some limited support from the navy, and there was an unsuccessful attempt to have the RAN assume control of these community- based sea cadet units and manage them as a ‘junior NRC’ scheme. From 1920, organisations such as the Boy Scouts’ Association and the Navy League, which dominated the community- based branch of the movement for the next 30 years, started to focus on their role as a recruitment base for the navy and pressed the Naval Board for greater navy commitment to their training and funding needs. Progressively, attempts by these larger community-based sea cadet organisations to have the navy commit fully to providing support, on the same basis that it did for the defence-based NRC, became the fundamental focus of all exchanges between these groups and the Naval Board. Through periods of compulsory cadet training, economic depression and war, discussions between the Naval Board and community-based v sea cadet organisers progressively came to focus solely on the merits of the RAN administering, and funding, both branches of the movement. A transition away from this problematic dual system of defence-based and community sponsored naval and sea cadets began in the aftermath of World War II. Influenced by changes in naval and sea cadet policy in Britain, the Naval Board began the process of creating one system of naval and sea cadet administration under the Director of Naval Reserves (DNR). While the two branches were not merged legally, the creation of the Australian Sea Cadet Corps (ASCC), in 1952, to be administered by the RAN alongside the NRC, ended the dual system. Henceforth, the NRC and ASCC were managed in tandem by the DNR and, while the Navy League retained an advisory role, the Australian naval and sea cadet movement was, from this point, effectively under the control of the RAN. Of course the path of birth, duality and a final coming together under RAN control in the period 1863-1952 was far more convoluted, confused, complex and complicated than the preceding paragraphs are able to convey. The history of the Australian naval and sea cadet movement is a knotty and intricate weave – one that this thesis attempts to unravel. vi Table of Contents Title Page i Copyright Statement ii Authenticity Statement iii Certificate of Originality iv Abstract v Table of Contents vii Acknowledgements viii Abbreviations ix Introduction 1 Chapter One – Colonial Origins 1863 -1900 15 Chapter Two – Duality Entrenched 1901-1910 43 Chapter Three – Compulsory Cadets Dominant 1911-1919 76 Chapter Four - Balance Restored 1920-1923 104 Chapter Five – Transition 1924-1932 134 Chapter Six – Hard Times 1933-1934 168 Chapter Seven – At Loggerheads 1935-1938 190 Chapter Eight – War and Policy Changes 1939-1945 216 Chapter Nine – Recognition in Principle 1946-1947 244 Chapter Ten – Dilemma Resolved 1948-1952 274 Conclusion 299 Bibliography 303 vii Acknowledgements Completing this work has brought me into contact with a large number of very helpful people. There are far too many to acknowledge individually. For this reason, I extend my thanks to all of these people, particularly the very helpful staff at the National Archives of Australia, but reserve special thanks for my supervisor, Craig Stockings, my co-supervisor, Eleanor Hancock, and my family. Without Craig and Eleanor’s expert guidance and my family’s endless patience this work would not have been possible. viii Abbreviations AAC Australian Army Cadets AAFC Australian Air Force Cadets ADFC Australian Defence Force Cadets AIF Australian Imperial Force ANA Australian Natives Association ANC Australian Navy Cadets ASCC Australian Sea Cadet Corps ATC Air Training Corps DNAS Director of Naval Auxiliary Services DNO District Naval Officer DNR Director of Naval Reserves DNRM Director of Naval Reserves and Naval Reserve Mobilisation DRRF Director of Naval Reserves and Reserve Fleet NAP Naval Auxiliary Patrol NRC Naval Reserve Cadets NLSCC Navy League Sea Cadet Corps RAN Royal Australian Navy RANB Royal Australian Naval Brigade RANC Royal Australian Naval College RANR Royal Australian Naval Reserve RANR (M) Royal Australian Naval Reserve (Militia) RANR (O) Royal Australian Naval Reserve (Obligatory) ix RANVR Royal Australian Naval Volunteer Reserve RN Royal Navy SDNO Sub-district Naval Officer x Introduction ‘Sea training must be regarded as an important, actually the most important, section of National training of youth’1 Vice Admiral Sir William Creswell The Australian naval and sea cadet movement began in the colonial era when boys were enrolled as defence-sponsored naval brigade cadets in the early 1860s. A second branch of the movement was born when the first community-sponsored sea cadet unit was formed, in 1900. Both of these groups were taught the training and traditions of the sea and the navy, but one was official and the other unofficial. Although the founding philosophies, sponsors and original structures of these two branches of the movement differed, their training of young boys in the ways of the sea, and the navy, was basically the same. For the official defence-based branch, however, part-time training in maritime skills was predominantly to prepare a boy for continuing service in the adult naval reserve or to apply for entry as an officer or sailor to the full-time navy. Their community-based counterparts, on the other hand, might be encouraged to consider a career in the navy or merchant marine, but the prime purpose of their maritime training was most often envisaged as a way to instil personal qualities of good citizenship, regardless of career choice. With regards to terminology, no long-term accepted definition exists for the naval and sea cadet movement, but it has become common contemporary practice to refer to the movement as the Australian Navy Cadets (ANC), since the formation of this organisation as part of the Australian Defence Force Cadets (ADFC), alongside the Australian Army Cadets 1 Report by the Director of the Naval Forces on the Naval Defence of the Commonwealth of Australia for the Year 1905, Government Printer, Melbourne, 1 January 1906, NAA A1194, 20.15/6714.

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