Royal United Services Institute of
Vancouver Island (RUSI-VI)

Navy's National Archives preserved in Calgary

by Darlene Blakeley

The Naval Museum of Alberta (NMA) was officially re-commissioned as part of The Military Museums complex during a special ceremony in Calgary October 16. At the same time, it was announced that a new national naval documentation archive would be established within the NMA.

The Military Museums, formerly called the Museum of the Regiments, used to host museums featuring the history of four regiments based in the region, but, as the largest tri-service museum in Western Canada and the second largest military museum in Canada next to the National War Museum in Ottawa, it now also includes Air Force, Navy and University of Calgary components. The NMA was originally opened in 1988 at the stone frigate HMCS Tecumseh to accommodate naval aircraft that survived the Tecumseh fire in 1981. The museum quickly grew into the largest Canadian naval museum in the country. There are four other Navy museums in CF, in Halifax, the city of Québec, Winnipeg and Esquimalt. Together, they make up the Navy Museum of Canada. Over the years, the NMA has accumulated priceless naval artifacts from around the world.

"The NMA has the most complete collection of major ship weapons systems in the Naval Museum of Canada," says Lieutenant-Commander Graeme Arbuckle, Navy Heritage Officer, "as well as being home to the Ken Macpherson photo collection and the John Burgess Library. Additionally, it will soon be home to the Naval Documentation Preservation and Research Centre, as well as the Major Artifact Rehabilitation Centre - both of which will serve the entire Naval Museum of Canada."

He adds that the naval archives will be held at the NMA because it has the most modern facility and can provide a significant amount of secure, climate-controlled storage and work space for the centre. There is also an area where researchers can review documents and study.

"The purpose of the centre is not only to preserve primary documents, but to digitize them and make them available to researchers anywhere in the world via the Naval Heritage website," says LCdr Arbuckle.

The archives will contain personal papers, records, photographs and any other material that contributes to a better understanding of Canadian naval and maritime history.

Honorary Navy Captain Bill Wilson played a pivotal role in the move of the NMA to The Military Museums. "This expansion project, which takes the Naval Museum from 10 000 square feet [929 square metres] of display space to almost 20 000 [1 858], has taken over eight years to bring to this stage and will have cost the Calgary naval and military community somewhere around $10 million," he explains. "It has also cost me quite of bit of hair, but it has been worth the stress!"

The Military Museums facility has been undergoing a $26.4-million expansion and is expected to be fully open next spring. ??Maple Leaf/Navy, 19 November 2008

EDITORIAL COMMENT : The CFB Esquimalt Naval and Military Museum is now part of this new Naval Museum of Canada centred in Calgary. As of April 1, 2009 it will be funded direct from Ottawa. At their meeting in Halifax early December, they were told that the eventual goal is to only collect items related to Canada's Navy.  I'm not sure what this means for our collection on west coast defences. The promise is that changes will take place gradually over a number of years to minimize disruption of existing exhibits.

While the British Navy first entered Esquimalt harbour in 1848, the gold rush brought British Marines and Royal Engineers to the Fraser River in 1858. Entering Confederation in 1871, the Canadian Militia system was extended to form Militia District No.11 (BC). Canadian Militia units were formed immediately in Victoria to man the seaward defences. The first Permanent Force unit to arrive here on Nov.10, 1887 was C Bty of Canadian Artillery that proceeded to build the first permanent military barracks at Work Point. Arrival of the Royal Canadian Navy followed on Nov. 9, 1910 at Esquimalt.

Fort Rodd Hill Historic Site has captured some of that coast artillery history, but not much of the first Work Point Barracks. The present Naval and Military Museum must continue to conserve both army and naval history so intertwined within Esquimalt Garrison. - Editor