RNVR Officer Intake

[Biggles]

Hello All,

 

Could someone please describe the process of joining the RNVR as a T/A/ Sub-Lieut. and the subsequent training involved?  I am familiar with the RNVR training of 1939/1940, and wondered how similar the 1914 process would be?

 

Cheerio and many thanks,

Caleb

[horatio2]

i cannot give you a definitive answer but here are a few thoughts.

I think the rank of Acting Sub Lt was rarely used in the RNVR. Wartime officers were usually commissioned as Temporary Sub Lt. (a few as Temporary Midshipman).

Men could be offered a commission on application and after interview (e.g. Bernard Freyberg, who nobbled Winston Churchill on Horse Guards Parade) but large numbers were RNVR ratings identified in training or subsequently as having leadership potential. RNVR officers were also commissioned from the Army.

Training was 'as required' for the roles they were to undertake and these were many and various: military training for officers destined for the Royal Naval Division; aviation/engineering  training for those entering for the RNAS; gunnery and torpedo schools for those going to the Fleet; minesweeping training, etc, etc.

[Biggles]

Thanks for your help horatio2,

 

I was meaning general Naval officers, those, as you mentioned, destined for the fleet.  I know that during WWII, RNVR officers were commissioned firstly as Probationary Temporary Acting Sub-Lieutenants (a mouthful indeed!), with the Prob. and Acting disappearing within the first couple of months of their service.  This, perhaps, was not the same during WWI.

During WWII, the RNVR training 'ship' was HMS. King Alfred, at Hove, Sussex, where was the RNVR officer training conducted during WWI?

Thanks again.

 

Cheerio,

Caleb

 

 

[seaJane]

Temporary and Probationary Surgeons RNVR had minimal training - there's evidence that some were trained at RNH Haslar (the chapter on Tom Kirk in Max Arthur's Last Post) so I guess also at RNHs in Chatham and Plymouth. Until mid-November 1918 the Medical Service was a civil rather than an executive branch, possibly with less expectation of military training accordingly.

[horatio2]

9 hours ago, Biggles said:

During WWII, the RNVR training 'ship' was HMS. King Alfred, at Hove, Sussex, where was the RNVR officer training conducted during WWI?

There was no such central base for all officer initial training. The closest equivalent in WW1 was HMS CRYSTAL PALACE at Sydenham. Most RNVR officers destined for the RND went there as well as  thousands of RNVR ratings. However, it seems the majority of newly-commissioned RNVR officers for general service did not go there. If they had been commissioned from previous service as a rating CRYSTAL PALACE was even more unlikely. A study of their records in ADM 337 shows that most went direct to the naval specialist schools. On-the-job training seems to have been the norm.

In short, there was no standard 'pipeline' for training RNVR officers in WW1.

[rolt968]

Thank you, Horatio.

That explains something.

When I first saw this thread I immediately went to the two histories (The Royal Navies Reserves 1903-2003 - Howarth and The RNVR - Kerr & Lennox) and was surprised to find that although there was plenty about officers pre WW1, the RND, service at sea in WW1 and so on and King Alfred in WW2, there was nothing about how officers joined during WW1.

RM