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Great
Britain’s Naval Reserves – Background Although there had been precursors, such
as the River & Sea Fencibles during the French Revolutionary Wars and some
provision for naval reserves made (but dropped through the fall of the Whig
government to the Tories) in 1852, it was not until 1859 that the Royal Naval
Reserve as such came into being. Provisionally, it was named the Royal Naval Volunteers.
In the teeth of vociferous opposition from much of the R.N. establishment, there
was the separate formation of a commissioned officers’ reserve in 1861. It was not until much later that its
ratings received proper naval uniforms (but then these had only been first
introduced for junior ratings in the Royal Navy in 1857). However, even
although officers wore uniforms from the start, not only were their cap
badges and buttons different, the rings on their cuff insignia were of a very
ornate ‘intertwined’ pattern, rather than the R.N.’s plain bands of gold.
This identified R.N.R. officers instantly as different. No matter how experienced and senior
individuals were, in the early decades only two commissioned ranks in the
executive branch were allowed on the active list: as sub-lieutenants and
lieutenants. A junior training rank of midshipman was introduced in 1872, but
this was only for ‘young gentlemen who had been educated in one of the
training ships’ such on the Conway. Engineers R.N.R. that had also
come into existence c.1865, were also restricted to the two lowest
commissioned ranks, of assistant engineer and engineer, as well. But, meaningless honorary commanders’ and paymaster’s
commissions were also handed out to those regarded as the great and the good.
With a commonplace lack of strategic
thought to be found in governmental and martial institutions, this reserve
found itself basically to be something of an equally badly-trained
replacement for the Royal Naval Coast Volunteers. While the organisation
changed periodically, it was not until the 1880s that there were any real
improvements in the R.N.R. Official incompetence during the Russian war scare
of 1885 led to the first provision of using passenger liners as armed
merchant cruisers (A.M.C.s) on a proper basis. Although the R.N.R. was regarded
primarily in terms of a shore gunnery reserve, experiments in having a tiny
number of commissioned executive branch officers serve with the fleet also
occurred this year. This resulted in extended periods of one year being
sanctioned, as well as officers being allowed to complete courses in
subjects, such as torpedo work and navigation. Even less consideration was given to
seamen rating reservists. In return for their modest annual retainers for
signing on, they were only required to spend occasional short periods on
drill ships and shore batteries, dotted around Great Britain’s coasts. Consequently, the training they received
remained out of date and poor. (It was not until 1891 that for the first time
in twenty-two years, there was an experiment in calling for volunteers to
serve with the fleet during the summer manœuvres. Although deemed successful,
this was not repeated the following year.) Further, but grudging opportunities had
availed themselves through the Naval Defence Act (1889) and subsequent
building campaigns, as the professional navy became increasingly
overstretched from the 1890s onwards. Through these decades, in spite of
continuing opposition from much of the naval establishment the R.N.R. had
grown significantly. Initially, nothing whatsoever had been
required of commissioned engineers and stokers in peace time and even then,
it was realised in 1890 that not enough of either had signed on. Pay rises meant some improvement in
recruitment and while it was decided that engineers did not need training,
stokers were from then onwards to be required to be drilled: presumably
including the art of wielding cutlasses, the same as the seamen. Also, among
the 1891 Tryon Committee’s recommendations was training with the fleet for a
limited number of engineers. This committee also wished for the introduction
of a retired list for officers (with the addition of commanders and captains)
and a reduction in honorary commissions. Most of Tryon’s recommendations were
accepted in 1893. Due to this, for the first time R.N.R. ratings were to be
dressed in the same uniforms as those in regular service: still with minor
differences. As of the mid-1890s provision was made in
annual estimates for reservist ratings to spend six months with the fleet on
a voluntary basis. Of course, this will have been only to make up shortfalls
in the R.N.’s own manning. This can be seen clearly because there was a
proposal in 1894 to ‘draft 900’ R.N.R. ratings ‘who had received training’
into the R.N., ‘with the right to serve for pension’. In 1895 there were further steps
forward. Two less than eight-year-old cruisers, Medea and Medusa,
replaced the drill ships at Southampton and North Shields. Also, due to a
dire shortage of executive branch officers, 100 young officers in the
Mercantile Marine, of which 90 held R.N.R. commissions, were taken into the
Royal Navy. On a supplementary list, they were known colloquially as ‘the
hungry hundred’. (This was repeated in a smaller way
a few years later.) The supply of improved breech-loading
guns for the ‘subsidised’ liners to be converted into A.M.C.’s in war was
concluded in 1896. An expensive
exercise, especially in light of rapidly changing tactics due to the
development of craft such as torpedo-boats, the rationale was in self-defence
against similar enemy vessels. The main adversary was then still regarded as
France. In 1900, the Naval Reserve
(Mobilisation) Act was passed, amending past legislation. The never-ending
reorganisation continued. During the Edwardian era, the R.N.R.
survived Admiral Sir John Fisher’s attempt to disband it completely in 1905
and through this, ironically, it was put on a far more seamanlike
footing. With massive building programmes and the retention of older,
larger warships as reserve fleets, the manning problems of the R.N. were by
then severe. Apart from partly manning the passenger liners that had already
been designated as A.M.C.s, it was in the role of keeping the pre-Dreadnought
warships at sea, stiffened by R.N. officers and ratings that that those of
the mainstream R.N.R. were to be used. Also, one relatively small scheme for
keeping naval ports (and only naval ports) free from mines had been
developed by using civilian fishing-craft. As of 1910 the Royal Naval
(Trawler Section) had been formed and four years later had grown not
inconsiderably. (For a more detailed account of the formation of the R.N.R.(T) see a slightly expanded and
reworked version of my M.A. dissertation in War Studies.) Finally, due to intelligence received
about German intentions, experiments were conducted in 1913 on a limited
scale in defensively arming freighters, such as those carrying refrigerated
meat from South America, against attack from A.M.C.s. The officers in charge
of their guns held R.N.R. commissions. |
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If in the early years the Royal Naval
Reserve was seen more in terms of coastal artillery though a lack of any
proper assigned role, then the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve could most
definitely claim to be the successors of the Royal Naval Coastal Volunteers.
Even although the R.N.C.V. was disbanded in 1873 (with its members supposedly
encouraged to join the R.N.R.’s newly formed 2nd class Reserve), largely
through the efforts of Thomas Brassey M.P., a purely amateur band of coastal
artillerymen known as the Royal Naval Artillery Volunteers sprung up in the same
year. A delightfully interesting and highly
colourful organisation, its larger and more affluent divisions were often
reported within the social columns of the best newspapers. Even so, coverage
was not always beneficial and much public bickering did not endear them to
the pukka navy. Apart from some old cannonry, a gunboat or two and some
instructors, which were supplied by the state, its members had to pay for
everything else. This included their uniforms, the officers having wavy bands
of silver. Keen as proverbial mustard, with their ancient cannons and
cutlasses, the R.N. had little interest in them and in 1891 tried to offload
them onto the army. The volunteers chose to disband themselves, rather than
suffer this perceived indignity! Nonetheless, many of the same men
reformed themselves into ‘naval cruising clubs’ and lobbied in high places
for some place in the country’s defence. In time this bore fruit and in 1903
the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve was formed. Unfortunately, prior to the
Great War, the R.N.V.R. retained all the worst aspects of the old R.N.A.V. In
an era of massive technological and organisational change, unsurprisingly,
the R.N. treated it as a joke. At this time the term ‘wavy navy’ after the
pattern of gold rings their officers wore and the adornment on ratings’
blue-jean collars was coined, although later it became something of a term of
endearment. Return to Royal Naval Volunteer
Reserve |
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