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Walter Hose

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Walter Hose
Walter Hose (third from left) aboard SS Komagata Maru
Born(1875-10-02)2 October 1875
P&O steamer Surat, Indian Ocean
Died22 June 1965(1965-06-22) (aged 89)
Windsor, Ontario
Allegiance United Kingdom
 Canada
Service / branch Royal Navy (1889–12)
 Royal Canadian Navy (1912–34)
Years of service1889–1934
RankRear Admiral
CommandsChief of the Naval Staff
HMCS Rainbow
Battles / warsBoxer Rebellion
First World War
AwardsCommander of the Order of the British Empire

Rear Admiral Walter Hose, CBE (2 October 1875 – 22 June 1965) was an officer of the Royal Navy (RN), the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) and founder of the Royal Canadian Naval Volunteer Reserve (RCNVR).

Along with Rear Admiral Charles Kingsmill, Walter Hose is known as the "Father of the Royal Canadian Navy".

Early career with the Royal Navy

Rear Admiral Hose was born on a ship in the Indian Ocean and joined the Royal Navy when he was 14. Assigned to HMS Britannia upon entering the service, Hose rose through the ranks holding six commands, including commanding gunboats in Asia and a torpedo gunboat with the Royal Navy Home Fleet. He reached his pinnacle appointment in the Royal Navy as executive officer aboard HMS Cochrane in 1909; however finding advancement too slow he looked into joining the infant Canadian navy.

Royal Canadian Navy

HMCS Rainbow and the First World War

Loaned to the fledgling Royal Canadian Navy as the Captain of HMCS Rainbow in 1911, Hose resigned his commission in 1912 and formally transferred to the Royal Canadian Navy. He retained command of HMCS Rainbow and remained stationed at the naval base at Esquimalt where he would play an instrumental role in the creation of Canada's volunteer reserve leading up to the Great War.

In 1912, Hose recommended to Rear Admiral Kingsmill, then Director of the Naval Service, that for the RCN to survive, Canada would require a volunteer citizen navy stationed at naval reserve units across the country. With this advice falling on deaf ears, in 1913 together with a group of businessmen and yachtsmen from Victoria, Hose defiantly created a "Company of Volunteers" who he allowed to use the naval base facilities and instructors under his command. When war was declared in 1914, these unofficial naval volunteers became the core of an 8,000-man Royal Canadian Naval Volunteer Reserve.

With the lack of Royal Navy ships along the northwest Pacific coast, Hose and the Rainbow were ordered to protect shipping from German raiders including the cruisers Leipzig and Nürnberg. After the threat had passed, Commander Hose focused his efforts on preventing German vessels from leaving port and even taking two prizes. He was then named Captain of Patrols by Admiral Charles Kingsmill. As captain of patrols he commanded over fifty vessels to fight the U-boat threat. It was the position he would hold until the end of the war.

Interwar service

Walter Hose Monument, Point Pleasant Park, Halifax, Nova Scotia

After the retirement of Admiral Kingsmill, Hose was appointed acting Director of the Naval Service in 1921 and Director of the Naval Service in 1922. During his time as commander Hose decommissioned the majority of the navy, and shut the Royal Naval College of Canada and the Youth Training Establishment in Halifax. He took the money saved by doing this and formally created the Royal Canadian Naval Volunteer Reserve.

In 1922 government cuts in the armed services of Canada were put in place and there was an effort by the government of the day to integrate the services under one commander-in-chief. Hose argued against this, demanding to continue to have access to the minister. Aided by the deputy minister Georges Desbarats, he prevented the navy from falling under the command of the position of the Chief of Staff. The position of Director was renamed as Chief of the Naval Staff in 1928 and he served in this position until his retirement in 1934.

Hose died in Windsor, Ontario in 1965 and received a full military funeral with six Reserve Petty Officer pallbearers from HMCS Hunter – one of the Naval Reserve units Hose he created in 1923. A monument at Point Pleasant Park in Halifax Nova Scotia honours his work saving and building the Royal Canadian Navy during the difficult years after the First World War and in the Great Depression.

Footnotes

  1. Walter Hose Monument, Point Pleasant Park, Halifax, Nova Scotia
  2. Obee, Dave (30 May 2010) "Floating our boats on a shoestring." The Times-Colonist. Retrieved 20 July 2013
  3. German (1990), p. 27.
  4. German (1990), p. 26.
  5. German (1990), p. 39.
  6. German (1990), p. 48.
  7. German (1990), p. 57.
  8. German (1990), p. 58.
  9. Smol, Robert (30 June 2010). "The Man Who Saved Canada's Navy". CBC News. Retrieved 20 July 2013
  10. Obee, Dave (30 May 2010) "Floating our boats on a shoestring." The Times-Colonist. Retrieved 20 July 2013
  11. MacFarlane, John M. "Walter Hose". www.nauticapedia.ca. Retrieved 8 October 2018.

References

Military offices
Preceded byHimself
As Director of the Naval Service 		Chief of the Naval Staff
1928–1934 		Succeeded byPercy Nelles
Preceded byCharles Kingsmill Director of the Naval Service
1921–1928 		Succeeded byHimself
As Chief of the Naval Staff
Commanders of the Royal Canadian Navy
Directors of the Naval Service
Chiefs of the Naval Staff
Principal Naval Adviser
Commanders, Maritime Command
Chiefs of the Maritime Staff
Commanders of the Royal Canadian Navy
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