To add to the fun, the Dominion of Canada was created in 1867, some 40 years before the RCN - and over 70 years before the formal creation of the Canadian Army - and I don't believe that Australia was ever a 'dominion': IIRC, those colonies were amalgamated as the Commonwealth of Australia. And in both cases, the countries remained colonies until the Statute of Westminster in 1932, albeit with essentially total home rule in domestic affairs [which is why Canada didn't declare war until Sept 3 1939. Mackenzie-King was making a political point].
So the existence of the RCN & RAN was not a matter of the political status of those countries.
(sorry, messed up the snipping. nothing below this point is mine. lr)
munroburton wrote:Tricky question. We had colonies and what was termed an empire for a couple of centuries, but Queen Victoria did not become formal Empress until 1877 - and that was of Empress of India.
Then there is alos the subtelties of the first and second British empires
As far as I understand the Royal Navy was The navy for the empire. I suspect that the navies you mentioned came into being when those colonies became dominions [but not sure about that]
Yep, the British Empire basically didn't exist in an official sense. It was just a colloquial term for all the colonies, charter companies and such that formed the empire. When Victoria wanted to be an Empress, Disraeli neatly sidestepped all the challenges of turning the United Kingdom into an official Empire by adding the Empire of India as a separate title.
The Royal Navy's standing establishment also predates the United Kingdom by some 150 years. The RCN and RAN were essentially created when the naval arms race leading up to WW1 pulled RN ships back to concentrate in home waters. Both got their first HMCS and HMAS around 1910.
New Zealand's naval forces operated as a division of the RN up until 1941, when they formally separated and all their ships became HMNZS.
The East India Company began what would eventually become the Indian Navy in the early 1600s, again preceding the UK itself. Throughout the 1800s what it was called changed many times and they didn't start using the HMIS prefix until 1934.[/quote]