Navy League of Australia

The Navy League of Australia is now one of a number of independent Navy Leagues formed in countries of the free world to influence public thinking on maritime matters and create interest in the sea.

Background

The Navy League was established in Australia in 1901, initially in the form of small branches of the United Kingdom Navy League. The first official state branch of the Navy League was established in Geelong, Victoria on August 1915 as the Navy League Sea Cadet Corps. Today, the Navy League in Australia and the Sea Cadets exist as different entities, with the Sea Cadets now known as the Australian Navy Cadets, and are now administrated by the Royal Australian Navy.

History

In 1856, at the conclusion of the Crimean War, sailors returning home formed a Naval Lads Brigade to help orphans in the backstreets of British ports. By the early 1900's, the British Mercantile marine was mainly manned by foreign seamen and so the Navy League established sea training schools for boys interested in the sea, at Windsor, Eton and Liverpool, in order to place them in the Navy and Merchant Marine. The Sea Cadet Corps was born.

The NSW Navy League Branch in 1920 embarked on a scheme of service for boys on similar lines to the Navy League Sea Cadet Corps in England and Canada. Within a month of determining that a Sea Cadet unit was to be started, the Navy League’s NSW Branch received six hundred applications. These were from boys of the surrounding districts eager to enter the Navy League Sea Cadet Corps. Three hundred passed the medical and were enrolled but only one hundred commenced training, as it was the limit of the Navy League’s training capacity. Three months later, the first unit of Navy League Cadets was launched with seven voluntary instructors, an Hon. Chaplain, Medical Officer, Surgeon Dentist and 52 Cadets. The boys were to have a fully qualified physical instructor, regular course of weekend training, illustrated lectures on the Royal Navy history, the Mercantile Marine and subjects on sport. By September 1921, the premises at corner of Grove Street and Wharf Rd, Snail’s Bay, Balmain were obtained for use as a Training Depot; the first Navy League Sea Cadet training depot opened in Australia. The Royal Australian Navy loaned a training cutter to the Cadets for training.

After World War II, the RAN’s Australian Navy Cadet units were re-established in January 1950, whereas the Navy League’s Units had operated throughout the war. Many Cadet Units struggled or went into voluntary recess during the war period as volunteer instructors became scarce or were required for defence work or to serve in the defence force. Immediately after the war, the Navy League, in 1946, restarted Companies with new staff, new names, new groupings of Cadets and new depots as the war years removed the experience of those who had previously volunteered creating a vacuum which older cadets tried to overcome.

By 1973, the Corps reached nearly 2500 cadets when the Royal Australian Navy and the Navy League agreed to the RAN becoming the Cadet's sole sponsor from January 1973, just 53 years after the Navy League NSW Branch had started the first Sea Cadet Company.

See Also

Australian Navy Cadets
Navy League

External Links

• [1], Navy League of Australia Website
• [2], Navy League of Australia Website, Victoria Division

Notes and references

• 2.Original Charter of Navy League held by Tasmanian Division
• 3.The Navy Year Book and Diary 1955 extract pp 245–253
• 4.The Navy League Journal No.1 July 1895
• 5.The ‘Journal of the Navy League - NSW Branch’ Vols.1 - 10; 1920–1932, 1938 - 1947
• 6.‘The Navy’ journal 1947–2005
• 7.Wilkins, John M RFD*, Australian Naval Reserves 1859-2006.
• 8.Various Navy League Journal of New South Wales
• 9.Various Navy League Sea Cadet Journal of New South Wales