The Naval Service of Canada, 1910–2010: The Centennial Story (review)

This very attractive tome will do much more than grace the coffee tables of naval historians and ‘old salts’ (although it will perform that task extremely well). Its excellent text and complementary illustrations will enlighten all who read it and improve their understanding of the development of Canada’s Navy and the importance of the service to the nation’s past, present, and, undoubtedly, future as well – no matter what their prior knowledge of the subject. With apparently everyone involved in the project either a present or former member of the Navy or the Department of National Defence – in particular its history shop – it also serves as a worthy tribute to W.A.B. ‘Alec’ Douglas. The former director general history – a worthy successor to the inestimable C.P. Stacey (who oversaw the publication of the Second World War Army official histories as well as Arms, Men and Governments: The War Policies of Canada, 1939–1945 and the integration of the three service historical sections as a prelude to full unification of the Canadian Armed Forces in the 1960s) and the intellectual and much-loved S.F. ‘Syd’ Wise (whose leadership solidified dnd’s single Directorate of History with a team of bright young historians, in and out of uniform, and gave Canada the first volume of the long-awaited official history of the Royal Canadian Air Force, Canadian Airmen and the First World War) – continued the professionalization of ‘DHist’ begun under his two iconic predecessors.

Following the production of the second and third volumes of the rcaf official history, examining the history of the Air Force to the end of the Second World War, ‘DHist’ experienced a drastic downsizing – as did much of dnd and other federal government departments in the mid-1990s. Douglas managed to save most of the naval part of the team of historians he had attracted to research and write the official history of the Royal Canadian Navy. The planned fourth and final volume of the rcaf history to continue the story to 1968’s unification of the Army, Navy, and Air Force ended up the sacrificial lamb; however, almost a decade and a half after the decimation of DHist (an establishment of thirty-two, all ranks, military and civilian, became one of ten civilians, all rank levels) we can see all the careful nurturing bearing fruit. Some of the Douglas recruits remain at the Directorate of History and Heritage (the new name after amalgamation with the also-slashed Directorate of Military Traditions and Heritage – the former DCeremonial) – such as contributors to this commemorative navy volume, Isabel Campbell, Bill Johnston, Bill Rawling, and Mike Whitby. Others such as chapter writers Don Graves, Richard Mayne (now with dnd’s Directorate of Future Security and Analysis), Marc Milner (University of New Brunswick), and Roger Sarty (Wilfrid Laurier University), represent the DHist diaspora.

All the contributors have received favourable reviews for their own independent research and writing, in addition to that done for the Crown, including others with dnd and/or Navy connections as well as respected independent research and writing. Jim Boutilier (Maritime Command Pacific, formerly Royal Roads Military College), Peter Hayden (Dalhousie, formerly rcn), and Harold Merklinger (dnd, formerly Royal Military College of Canada) all worked under the guidance of Richard Gimblett (Naval Staff historian and a former naval officer who served in the first war in the Persian Gulf and later co-authored, with Jean Morin, Operation Friction, 1990–1991: The Canadian Forces in the Persian Gulf, the official account of our armed services’ contributions in that conflict). Along with the experts already mentioned, Gimblett recruited Pat Jessop, a naval officer with graduate training in war art and naval history. Her chapter on Second World War naval art, along with the reproductions she helped to choose to illustrate the inevitable ups and downs over an entire century of struggle against opponents in...