HMS Warspite anchors in Victoria Park’s pavilion
Badminton or naval training?
That question faced Kitchener’s Board of Park Management on Dec. 29, 1941. In the foreground of the decision was the ongoing Second World War: in the background was the loss of thousands of dollars of revenue over the next year. Right in the middle was Victoria Park’s 1924 pavilion. Primarily a meeting place/dance hall/theatre/ sports venue, it sat among lush gardens, stately trees and manicured lawns.
Since September 1939, Britain’s tenuous existence depended on an almost continual stream of ships delivering food and materiel from North America. Germany’s submarines threatened to sever this lifeline. Many Canadian soldiers were already stationed in Britain but what Canada needed now were sailors: navy and merchant.
The non-governmental Navy League of Canada had been formed in 1895 and during the First World War began the Boys Naval Brigade to train teens for sea life. The more familiar Sea Cadets name came about in the 1920s. Locally, there was no Navy League until late 1941, followed by a quickly-organized Sea Cadet corps funded by K-W Federated Charities.
Cadets needed a place to train and no building in Kitchener fit the bill like Victoria Park’s pavilion. Navy League officials from Toronto thought it ideal.
On the other hand, annual pavilion rentals brought in thousands of dollars and included a legal agreement of $50 a month with the badminton club. There was however a two-weeks’-notice escape clause which allowed the park board, following moderate discussion, to approve the Navy League’s request to use the building for $1 a year.
Sea Cadets were teenaged boys not yet enrolled in the military but supplied with uniforms and equipment by the government. Upon later voluntary application to the Royal Canadian Navy, they received credit for the cadet training.
Over the next two months, the pavilion underwent a dramatic transformation, becoming HMS Warspite, whose battleship namesake in the Royal Navy would boast more battle honours than any British vessel by war’s end.
Under park board member W.H.E. Schmalz, artists transformed the inside of the pavilion: it became a battleship’s virtual and visual quarterdeck. Twelve-foot high plywood walls were installed around the interior and painted with scenes representing a convoy in midocean: ships, planes, birds, waves. One end of the hall featured a trompe l’oeil battleship turret with four huge gun barrels seemingly projecting over the “quarterdeck.”
Ten officers and two chaplains oversaw a hundred boys learning knot-tying, signalling, weapons use and military discipline. There was also a 25member bugle band under SubLieutenant Albert Pearson. In the basement, called “B” deck, a recreation room featured setups for recreational activities such as boxing and table tennis. Other amenities include a canteen, galley, library and radio room. Commanding Officer Earl Putnam was assisted by SubLieutenant Oscar “Tods” Rumpel and others. (In March 1945, when the minesweeper HMCS Guysborough was sunk by U868 off the coast of Brittany, Rumpel became one of Canada’s 1,797 wartime navy losses.)
With boats on Victoria Park lake, the boys, many of whom had never been in any kind of vessel, gained their first sea legs rowing around the islands. Some cadets graduated to join the Royal Canadian Navy; others became merchant seamen.
With peace, the Navy League/ Sea Cadets were reluctant to vacate their dollar-a-year picturesque home in Victoria Park. It took months of discussion before the sea scenes came down and dancing, music concerts and, yes, badminton resumed in the pavilion. The Sea Cadets did find a new home and, in 2020, and are still operating. Check www.warspiteseacadets.com but, like too many websites, it has no history window. Hopefully, once the pandemic is over, they’ll prepare one to celebrate Warspite’s 80th birthday in December 2021.