Newfoundland Royal Naval Reserve

Newfoundland Royal Naval Reserve
Active1900-1921
Country Newfoundland Colony (1900-1907)
 Dominion of Newfoundland (1907-1921)
Typemilitary reserve force
Rolenaval
Part ofRoyal Naval Reserve
Garrison/HQSt. John's
Members of the Newfoundland Royal Naval Reserve in front of their ship, HMS Calypso, wharfside at St. Johns.
Provincial Archives of Newfoundland and Labrador

The Newfoundland Royal Naval Reserve was a military reserve force founded in 1900 in what was then the Newfoundland Colony, a part of the British Empire.[1] From 1900 to 1902, approximately 50 members of the reserve trained each winter with the North American and West Indies squadron of the Royal Navy until a steam and sail powered training ship, HMS Calypso, was provided by the United Kingdom in 1902 for local drills before at-sea training with the NA and WI squadron.[2] The reserve had 375 members by late 1903 and then between five and six hundred reservists until the start of World War I, growing to over 1000 in 1915. 1,964 Newfoundlanders served with the Naval Reserve in World War I, suffering 192 fatalities.[3] The Reserve disbanded in 1920-1921. Calypso, having been renamed HMS Briton, was sold as a storage hulk and was burned for salvage near Lewisporte, Newfoundland and Labrador.

  1. ^ "For King and Country" Stanley I. Hillier and the Newfoundland Royal Naval Reserve". Retrieved 2008-12-06.
  2. ^ Mark C. Hunter, To Employ and Uplift Them: The Newfoundland Naval Reserve, 1899-1926 (St. John's, NL: ISER Books, 2009), pp. 33-63 and "Maritime History On-line Catalogue". Retrieved 2008-12-07.
  3. ^ "Newfoundland and the Great War: Royal Naval Reserve". Newfoundland and Labrador Heritage Web Project. Retrieved 2008-12-06.