To celebrate the paperback publication of her dive into the lives of WWII’s voluntary yachtsmen, Uncommon Courage, Julia Jones expands upon the source of the new material included in the paperback – the London Flotilla.


No training offered – so they organised it for themselves: the RNVSR and the London Flotilla

 

No training offered – so they organised it for themselves: the RNVSR and the London Flotilla

The list was opened for the RNVSR Yachtsmen Volunteers in November 1936. The Naval Arms race was on, and the Admiralty were building more ships. Were they building the right ships? Possibly not but no one was asking that question yet. Plenty of new Destroyer flotillas were under construction, new Sloops and Cruisers – all of them larger than the ships they were replacing, fitted with more complex equipment so potentially requiring larger complements of officers and men. Presenting the unprecedently large figure for the Naval Estimates in March of that year – when Hitler was marching into the Rhineland -- Lord Stanley, Parliamentary Secretary to the Admiralty did not attempt to deny that the Navy had a manning crisis. The attrition rate among officers was a particularly serious concern. The Geddes Axe had chopped out more than 2000 officers in the early 1920s and the remained had been subjected to a series of moral lowering pay cuts. Now, in 1936, their absence was beginning to be felt.

So where would the new officers come from, in the event of an ‘emergency’? Arctic explorer and Little Ship Club member Augustine Courtauld had already made an appointment to try and convince the Admiral in charge of reserves that ‘chaps who know a bit about boats should be allowed to give a hand with the Navy’ but felt he had been fobbed off. The Secretary to the Royal Cruising Club wrote a similar letter. In October 1936, it appeared that they had been listened to. A passing reference by the First Lord of the Admiralty, invited ‘gentlemen resident in the United Kingdom who are interested in yachting and similar pursuits […] and who are desirous of being earmarked for commission in the RNVR in the event of war’ to put their names forward. The response was overwhelming – 1000 men in the first four months alone. To put that in proportion the regular RNVR had only about 800 officers. The Navy itself had 9000.

The Yacht Duet

Soon the volunteer yachtsmen outstripped the official capacity to process applicants. Such keenness posed a problem. The Admiralty was understandably anxious not to offend the ‘regular’ RNVR – nor to incur any additional expense. So, there was to be no pay, no uniforms and no training. A week on a destroyer might be offered occasionally, but volunteers would need to cover all their own expenses. Such lack of official provision didn’t seem adequate to those who had taken the decision, potentially, to offer their lives.

London was the place with the largest number of RNV(S)R volunteers. It already possessed yacht clubs with social amenities for those City lawyers, clerks, bankers and businessmen who wanted to spend leisure time with like-minded companions. The Little Ship Club welcomed the new scheme at once and urged its members to join. Club members were already running general navigation and seamanship classes as well as lectures. Now they anticipated a more specialised need – assisting their largely sail-based members to gain the skills needed to handle boats under power. They knew they had an expert instructor. ‘Will the Navy lend Mr Higley Halliday a couple of their new high-speed boats for his seamanship classes? He would no doubt teach us how we should handle them.’

Unsurprisingly, the Navy did not send their new high-speed vessels. Little Ship Club members began taking each other out on their own yachts. Augustine Courtauld and his friend Frank Carr soon formed an East Anglian group using their own yachts Duet and Cariad to offer seagoing experience to others. One volunteer, Rachard Walker described his experience:

‘We sailed out into the North Sea, altered course together in formation, practiced abandoning ship, Morse and semaphore and became skilled in signalling with the International Code. August Courtauld, though a highly competent yachtsman was a terrifying skipper. He would go out in all weathers, crowd on the maximum of sail and with the Courtauld millions behind him, did not mind in the least if his sails were torn to shreds – he just ordered a new set.” A few years later, when Walker was assigned to the Northern Patrol, he decided that his time on Duet had been excellent training.

RNPS Memorial

But it wasn’t really what was needed. The London-based RNV(S)R members developed a relationship with the London Flotilla, linked to the RNVR London Division . The aim of the Flotilla was water borne training. Initially its energetic secretary, WS Crocker, persuaded Thames motor yacht owners to invite volunteers on board. My father, a 21-year-old clerk from Birmingham benefitted from such an initiative. It was the discovery of his logbook that initially sparked my RNVSR research. The enthusiasts of the Little Ship Club and the London Flotilla still wanted more. They jointly funded the purchase of two ex-naval steam pinnaces, Response and Reply. Eminent barristers and City businessmen were soon to be found stripped to their braces, shovelling coal. One or two of the more prosperous were reported to experience problems inserting themselves through small hatchway.

The RNV(S)R volunteers did their classroom homework too. In 1938 the Board of Trade adapted the syllabus of their Yacht Masters Certificate to develop these new recruits. Courses could also be done by correspondence with the inducement that those who had passed would be the first to be called up to serve.

That proved a mixed blessing. 28-year-old Little Ship Club member Geoffrey Darlow gained his certificate and was duly sent to join a ASW trawler on the Northern Patrol, attempting to enforce a stop and search system north of Orkney and 100 miles west of Shetland. On 5th November 1939, HMT Northern Rover was torpedoed and all hands lost. Temporary Sub-Lieutenant Darlow’s name was the first to be inscribed on the Royal Naval Patrol Service and the London Flotilla Roll of Honour. 

The publication of the paper back edition of Uncommon Courage has given me the opportunity to pay further tribute to these committed volunteers.

The Yacht Response

The Yacht Reply