The Admirals: Canada's Senior Naval Leadership in the Twentieth Century (review)

In the context of Canadian naval history, this book is long overdue and, more importantly, fills an important gap in the scholarship of the Royal Canadian Navy. Previous Maritime Command Historical Conferences, and the published proceedings that followed those conferences, have focused almost exclusively upon events and policy. While those papers contributed to our knowledge of the Navy, little attention was paid to the key role played by senior officers charged with running the Navy. This anthology seeks to redress that omission.

The contributors to this volume – primarily academics – have examined the careers of nine former chiefs of the Naval Staff (CNS). A chapter on Rear-Admiral Leonard Murray and Rear-Admiral Bill Landymore round out the anthology. Neither of these men rose to the highest rank in the Navy, but their valuable contribution to the service warrant their inclusion in this collection. Equally important, six former commanders of Maritime Command offer the reader their impressions on the challenges they faced during their tenure as head of the Canadian Navy. Each of the three editors contributed a biography (Whitby on DeWolf, Gimblett on Kingsmill, and Haydon on Rayner). Well-known Canadian naval historians have also contributed to this volume, including Marc Milner (who wrote on Murray), Roger Sarty (Nelles), Bill Glover (Hose), Peter Haydon (Rayner), Richard Mayne (Jones), and Wilf Lund who wrote a chapter on Reid and Grant. Bob Caldwell, a historian with the Directorate of History and Heritage, DND, contributed the biography on Landymore. As Michael Whitby observes in the introduction, 'We have not included all of the admirals who led the navy. Unfortunately, there was not enough time to cover them all, and there are always problems finding academics to write the necessary papers to "speak" for those who have passed on' (16). Nevertheless, it is unfortunate that others were not included in this biographical compendium. If an argument can be made for the inclusion of officers such as Murray and Landymore, then surely one can be made for the inclusion of Vice-Admiral H.N. Lay who became vice-chief of the Naval Staff and played a key role in determining the shape of the postwar RCN.

Like all anthologies, this collection is uneven in its quality, though not for reasons the reader might suspect. None of the chiefs of the naval staff left much in the way of personal correspondence or personal papers for future generations of historians to access. For example, Admiral Jones's staff destroyed his personal correspondence following his death in 1946. Not surprisingly, Richard Mayne faced the difficult task in piecing together sufficient documentary evidence to produce anything like a comprehensive biography of Jones. Others were more prescient and appreciated the historical value of their personal correspondence. Harry DeWolf's papers eventually made their way into the Library and Archives Canada. Even so, his collection is not complete. Consequently, Michael Whitby, who is currently preparing a book-length biography of DeWolf, had to turn to oral history, DeWolf's family, and other collections in order to flesh out the story.

Despite these obstacles, Richard Mayne, for example, has shed new light on the enigmatic Jones. As Mayne observes,

Jones was a shrewd, hard-working administrator whose understanding of the political world allowed him to advance an impressive plan for a truly Canadian postwar task force. Had it not been for his excessive personal ambition, Jones would have been remembered as one of the best administrators in the naval service, determined to finish the balanced fleet that Nelles had started. Instead, he was a cryptic and complex man who left the navy a mixed legacy.

(148)

DeWolf was not only Canada's pre-eminent fighting sailor, he was also an excellent staff officer and a capable administrator who played a key role in shaping the postwar Navy during the critical period 1956 to 1960. In fact, according to Whitby, DeWolf...