The Canadian Cadet Movement and the Boy Scouts of Canada in the Twentieth Century

“No Mere Child’s Play”: The Canadian Cadet Movement and the Boy Scouts of Canada in the Twentieth Century by Kevin Woodger A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of History University of Toronto © Copyright by Kevin Woodger 2020 “No Mere Child’s Play”: The Canadian Cadet Movement and the Boy Scouts of Canada in the Twentieth Century Kevin Woodger Doctor of Philosophy Department of History University of Toronto Abstract This dissertation examines the Canadian Cadet Movement and Boy Scouts Association of Canada, seeking to put Canada’s two largest uniformed youth movements for boys into sustained conversation. It does this in order to analyse the ways in which both movements sought to form masculine national and imperial subjects from their adolescent members. Between the end of the First World War and the late 1960s, the Cadets and Scouts shared a number of ideals that formed the basis of their similar, yet distinct, youth training programs. These ideals included loyalty and service, including military service, to the nation and Empire. The men that scouts and cadets were to grow up to become, as far as their adult leaders envisioned, would be disciplined and law-abiding citizens and workers, who would willingly and happily accept their place in Canadian society. However, these adult-led movements were not always successful in their shared mission of turning boys into their ideal-type of men. The active participation and complicity of their teenaged members, as peer leaders, disciplinary subjects, and as recipients of youth training, was central to their success. When this participation was withdrawn adult leaders were forced to react to the desires of the boys or eject them from the program altogether. For much of the twentieth century the Cadet and Scout movements represented the two largest uniformed youth movements, together training hundreds of thousands of Canadian boys. ii As such, studying these movements together offers important insights into the ways in which youth were organized in English Canada. Both movements had their origins in, and contributed to, Canadian understandings of Canada as a white settler colonial state within the British Empire and Commonwealth. They were also united by their goals of forging particular types of heterosexual masculine imperial and national subjects. Together, these movements provide insights into the ways in which particular conceptions of gender and nation have been inculcated into young people, traditionally viewed as more malleable than adults and who would potentially carry their youth training with them into adulthood. iii Acknowledgments This dissertation would not have been possible without the help and guidance of many friends and colleagues. Sean Mills and Cecilia Morgan provided invaluable feedback on many earlier drafts. Cynthia Comacchio likewise provided stimulating critiques that have helped improve this dissertation. Steve Penfold and Laurie Bertram have offered years of support and guidance throughout my graduate school career. Many thanks also to my fellow graduate students in the Department of History at the University of Toronto, both in the Canadian field and from a variety of fields, including. Conversations, reading groups, and discussions of works- in-progress created a vibrant intellectual community that fostered my thinking on many of this dissertation’s major themes. Special thanks to my supervisor Ian Radforth for many years of steady guidance. This project would not be what it is without his exceptional supervision and encouragement. Thanks also to my partner Elizabeth who was a constant companion during many summers of research trips to Ottawa and Montreal. This dissertation is dedicated to my mother who passed away in 2015. iv Table of Contents ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ............................................................................................................ IV TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................................................................................... V LIST OF TABLES ........................................................................................................................ VI LIST OF FIGURES ..................................................................................................................... VII LIST OF APPENDICES ............................................................................................................ VIII INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................................... 1 CHAPTER 1 - “TAKE YOUR HANDS OFF THE SCHOOLBOYS OF CANADA”: CADET AND SCOUT MILITARISM IN THE INTERWAR YEARS ..................................................... 33 CHAPTER 2 - “ONE OF THE FINEST SOURCES OF RECRUITS”: CADETS AND SCOUTS IN WAR AND COLD WAR ........................................................................................................ 82 CHAPTER 3 - “YOU WANT A CAST ON THAT ARM?!”: DISCIPLINE AND RESISTANCE IN THE CADET AND SCOUT MOVEMENTS .............................................. 142 CHAPTER 4 - “HOW SCRUFFY THESE KIDS ARE”: AGE AND CLASS IN THE CADETS AND SCOUTS ........................................................................................................................... 202 CHAPTER 5 - “A SCOUT IS LOYAL TO THE KING”: IMPERIALISM AND NATIONALISM IN THE CADETS AND SCOUTS ................................................................ 256 CHAPTER 6 - “A TRUE SPIRIT OF INTEGRATION AND COOPERATION”: WHITENESS AND AMBIGUOUS CANADIANIZATION IN THE CADETS AND SCOUTS .................... 313 CONCLUSION ........................................................................................................................... 352 BIBLIOGRAPHY ....................................................................................................................... 368 APPENDICES ............................................................................................................................ 407 v List of Tables TABLE 1 - CUB AND BOY SCOUT POPULATION, 1925-1960. SOURCE: AGE AND MEMBERSHIP IN CANADIAN SCOUTING, N.D. HENRY SEYWERD FONDS, R-11525 VOL. 4, LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA. ............................................................................................................ 407 vi List of Figures FIGURE 1 - SCHOOL CADETS CA. 1910. LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA MIKAN NO. 3404331 42 FIGURE 2 - SEA CADETS OF RCSCC NELSON PRACTICE SIGNALING, HALIFAX, MARCH 1943. LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA MIKAN NO. 3567372 .................................................. 100 FIGURE 3 - AIR CADETS POSING IN FRONT OF AN AIRCRAFT, MAY 1941. LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA MIKAN NO. 3581768 .......................................................................................... 114 FIGURE 4 - ARMY CADETS IN HIGHLAND DRESS DURING A TRIP TO JAMAICA, DATE UNKNOWN, CA. 1943-1965. LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA MIKAN NO. 4235544 ............................... 285 FIGURE 5 - TEEPEE, BROUGHT TO CANADA'S FIRST SCOUT JAMBOREE BY SASKATCHEWAN SCOUTS, IS ASSEMBLED AT THE CONNAUGHT RANGES, OTTAWA, JULY 1949. LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA MIKAN NO. 492671 ............................................................................................ 288 FIGURE 6 - INDIGENOUS AIR CADETS OF NO. 610 SQUADRON AT SUMMER CAMP. LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA MIKAN NO. 3198218 ......................................................................... 347 vii List of Appendices APPENDIX A - CUB AND BOY SCOUT POPULATION, 1925-1960.. ................................................. 407 viii INTRODUCTION In May 1946, approximately 100 sea cadets from Port Arthur, Ontario’s Royal Canadian Sea Cadet Corps (RCSCC) “ADMIRAL CRADDOCK” conducted an amphibious landing in Chippewa Park, Fort William. They “hit the beach” near the tourist cabins, with orders to “move inland and destroy observation posts and a radio station,” against an opposing force of an equal number of army cadets from three Fort William high school cadet corps. According to the Fort William Daily-Times Journal, beginning at one o’clock in the afternoon “The navy men” landed “under cover of a smoke screen,” and quickly moved inland. Spectators reportedly “watched with interest as the plan of attack unfolded and pockets of resistance were overcome.” Communicating by “walkie talkie” the sea cadets quickly “knocked out the observation post and put the radio station out of commission.” After some brief skirmishing the army cadets counterattacked, forcing the sea cadets to retreat to their landing craft, a maneuver that military observers described as the “highlight of the entire show.” Simulated “casualties” were tended to by stretcher parties and sent to casualty clearing stations. Although most of the cadets were carrying mock weapons, the “sham invasion battle” was given added realism through the use of blank cartridges in real rifles issued to a number of participants and the setting off of “thunder bombs” by Canadian Army personnel. The rifles and bombs were meant to simulate the sounds and smells of combat. The thunder bombs reportedly “rattled the country-side and roared over the lake surface.” One of the only surprises of the afternoon was when one of the shorter sea cadets caught his foot when hopping over the side of his boat and fell straight into the water.1 1 A/Lieutenant-Commander C.W. King, Commanding Officer, HMCS Griffon, Port Arthur, Ontario to the Naval Secretary and the Director

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