New Zealand Naval Forces was the name given to a division of the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against ...

. The division was formed in

1913 Events January * January 5 – First Balkan War: Battle of Lemnos – Greek admiral Pavlos Kountouriotis forces the Turkish fleet to retreat to its base within the Dardanelles, from which it will not venture for the rest of the ...

and it operated under this name until 1921, when it became the New Zealand Division of the Royal Navy.

History

Originally the

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

provided total security for the

colony In modern parlance, a colony is a territory subject to a form of foreign rule. Though dominated by the foreign colonizers, colonies remain separate from the administration of the original country of the colonizers, the '' metropolitan state' ...

of New Zealand, but in

1846 Events January–March * January 5 – The United States House of Representatives votes to stop sharing the Oregon Country with the United Kingdom. * January 13 – The Milan–Venice railway's bridge, over the Venetian Lagoon between ...

the settlers bought a

gunboat A gunboat is a naval watercraft designed for the express purpose of carrying one or more guns to bombard coastal targets, as opposed to those military craft designed for naval warfare, or for ferrying troops or supplies. History Pre-ste ...

. The Waikato Flotilla operated from 1860, and at the same time a Naval Artillery Volunteer corps was established to provide harbour defence. In

1884 Events January–March * January 4 – The Fabian Society is founded in London. * January 5 – Gilbert and Sullivan's '' Princess Ida'' premières at the Savoy Theatre, London. * January 18 – Dr. William Price at ...

the government purchased four spar torpedo boats, and starting in

1887 Events January–March * January 11 – Louis Pasteur's anti-rabies treatment is defended in the Académie Nationale de Médecine, by Dr. Joseph Grancher. * January 20 ** The United States Senate allows the Navy to lease Pearl ...

it funded ships of the Australasian Auxiliary Squadron. Before establishment of the navy, the people of New Zealand paid for the building of the battlecruiser HMS ''New Zealand'', which was at the Battle of Jutland. In 1912 the then New Zealand Minister of Defence, James Allen, argued in London for the creation of a New Zealand division of the Royal Navy. Though this was opposed by the First Lord of the Admiralty,

Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 during the Second World War, and again from ...

, the Naval Defence Act of 1913 brought the division into existence. The Naval Defence Act authorised the Government to establish a naval force organisation which would pass to the control of the Admiralty in the event of war. The division was to be funded by the New Zealand government. The

light cruiser A light cruiser is a type of small or medium-sized warship. The term is a shortening of the phrase "light armored cruiser", describing a small ship that carried armor in the same way as an armored cruiser: a protective belt and deck. Prior to th ...

HMS ''Philomel'' was purchased from the Royal Navy to function as a training ship. In 1913 it became the first boat to be commissioned, under the command of

Percival Hall-Thompson Admiral Percival Henry Hall-Thompson (5 May 1874 – 6 July 1950) was a Royal Navy officer who played a key role in the development of the New Zealand Naval Forces and also served in the First World War as commander of . He went on to be First N ...

, into the New Zealand navy. ''Philomel'' escorted New Zealand land forces to occupy the German colony of

Samoa Samoa, officially the Independent State of Samoa; sm, Sāmoa, and until 1997 known as Western Samoa, is a Polynesian island country consisting of two main islands ( Savai'i and Upolu); two smaller, inhabited islands ( Manono and Apolima); ...

1914 This year saw the beginning of what became known as World War I, after Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir to the Austrian throne was Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, assassinated by Serbian nationalist Gavrilo Princip. It als ...

and saw further action under the command of the Royal Navy in the

Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the ...

, the

Red Sea The Red Sea ( ar, البحر الأحمر - بحر القلزم, translit=Modern: al-Baḥr al-ʾAḥmar, Medieval: Baḥr al-Qulzum; or ; Coptic: ⲫⲓⲟⲙ ⲛ̀ϩⲁϩ ''Phiom Enhah'' or ⲫⲓⲟⲙ ⲛ̀ϣⲁⲣⲓ ''Phiom ǹšari''; ...

, and the

Persian Gulf The Persian Gulf ( fa, خلیج فارس, translit=xalij-e fârs, lit=Gulf of Fars, ), sometimes called the ( ar, اَلْخَلِيْجُ ٱلْعَرَبِيُّ, Al-Khalīj al-ˁArabī), is a mediterranean sea in Western Asia. The bod ...

. In 1919 Commodore, Alan Geoffrey Hotham was appointed commander-in-chief until 1921 when the New Zealand Naval Forces was renamed as the New Zealand Division of the Royal Navy.

Commanders in chief

Included: * Captain, Percival Henry Hall-Thompson, 1913-1919 *Commodore, Alan Geoffrey Hotham, 1919-1921.

References

Sources

* Grant, H. (1981). The Navy in New Zealand : an illustrated history. Reed Publishing. * Walters, Sydney David (1956) ''The Royal New Zealand Navy: Official History of World War II'', 1939-1945, Department of Internal Affairs, Wellingto
Chapter 1: Genesis of the Royal New Zealand Navy

External links

A brief overview of our history
Royal Navy History
The Royal New Zealand Navy {{Royal Navy fleets, state=collapsed Naval units and formations of the United Kingdom Military units and formations established in 1913 Military units and formations disestablished in 1921 Military history of New Zealand