Royal Canadian Navy
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Royal Canadian Navy Ensign |
Our Guide to Sources for Research into the Royal Canadian Navy, prepared by Dr. Richard Gimblett, retired RCN Command Historian, examines a very wide range of published documents.
Our Our Catalogue holdings, referring specifically to the Royal Canadian Navy, are extensive.
Collections: journals, magazines, files etc:
Canadian Defence Quarterly :
Canadian Defence Quarterly (1923-1939) - Our catalogued holdingsCanadian Defence Quarterly (1971- ) - Our catalogued holdings
Canadian Defence Quarterly - Selected articles from the 1971 series.
The Crow's Nest :
The Crow's nest - Our catalogued holdings of the WWII newsprint format editionsThe Crowsnest - Our catalogued holdings of The Crowsnest : The Royal Canadian Navy's Magazine, 1949-1965
Crowsnest - Our catalogued holdings of Crowsnest [the national news magazine of the Royal Canadian Navy], 2011-
Canadian Naval Review
The Canadian Naval Review - Our catalogued holdings; see also our holdings, near complete, of the Canadian Military Journal which contains significant naval content.
Collected files :
The Mainguy Report : The events surrounding the return of ships and men at the end of World War Two are covered by:
The Official Report on certain "Incidents"... by Rear-Admiral E.R. Mainguy, R.C.N., and later documents
Mutiny and the Royal Canadian Navy by Christopher M. Bell
What the Mainguy report never told us: the tradition of ‘mutiny’ in the Royal Canadian Navy before 1949 and
The Post-war ‘Incidents’ in the Royal Canadian Navy, 1949 by LCdr Richard Gimblett.
"A Sickly Season: The Royal Canadian Navy and the Mainguy Commission", K.D. Calow (thesis).
The Sea King: a narrative of adaptability - C. Ayers and J.Wood, Royal United Services Institute. This article reinforces the importance of oral history; note that it predates John Orr's Perseverance : the Canadian Sea King story.
"The gold-braid mind is destroying our navy". Commodore James Plomer DSC*, CD, OBE (1911-1986) retired from the RCN in 1962, and wrote this piece for McLean's the following year. While some critics have seen this as controversial, or even acrimonious, it started a major discussion leading up to Paul Hellyer's "unification", and the GTF/DHH programme.
The Donald S. Jones fonds - Cdr Jones was an engineering and aero-engineering officer in the RCN from 1942 to 1974, with a continuing civilian career with the Department of National Defence. The fonds consists of multiple files containing his notes and training materials.
The Julie Ferguson fonds - Julie Ferguson spent many years researching Canadian submarines prior to publication of her Through a Canadian periscope in 1995 (revised edition 2004) and Deeply Canadian in 2000; this extensive fonds contains all of her research materiel.
The Frank Stockwell fonds - Cdr Stockwell was responsible for HMCS Haida after her decommissioning; this fonds includes corresponence, photographs, publications and memorabilia.
Ships, officers and men:
George Devonshire - served Merchant Navy then HMCS Waskesiu, Russian convoys, Word War II.