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Lot 91
Description:
Very Early & Rare
-
Dimensions:
- Weight 12.36gms Literature:
- 637 Medium:
- Collectibles Circa:
- Military & Wartime Notes:
- In August 1908, Australia hosted a visit by the ‘Great White Fleet’ - the sixteen white-painted battleships of the U.S. Pacific Fleet. Embarrassingly, for a nation with 25,760 kilometres of coastline Australia did not have the necessary vessels to provide a naval escort, and so in early 1909 the Labor Prime Minister Andrew Fisher ordered three destroyers from Britain’s shipyards to lay the foundations of the Royal Australian Navy. Fisher was fleetingly replaced as Prime Minister by Alfred Deakin of the Commonwealth 'Liberal' Party who wanted the ‘new’ Australian Navy to be commanded as a unit of the Royal Navy’s Eastern Fleet, but with Fisher’s return to power in April 1910 the Royal Australian Navy’s independent future was secured with the combined 'Australian' fleet entering Sydney Harbour for the first time on the 4th October 1913. In our sale we have one of only a few medals struck in 10ct gold to commemorate this momentus event (see Lot 90) which "marked the beginning of the Australian Navy. The ships entered Sydney Heads in the following order : Australia, Melbourne, Encounter, Sydney, Warrego, Parramatta and Yarra as crowds gathered in the early morning to cheer their entry to the Harbour." (Les Carlisle, Australian Historical Medalets). Australia as a new nation had already witnessed the defeat of the Russians by the Japanese in 1905 and, with the threat of a well-established German colony in New Guinea on its doorstep, it had introduced compulsory part-time naval and military cadet training for boys between the ages of twelve and eighteen to provide the future manpower for its forces. As an island nation, the Navy was regarded as the senior defence force and so had first pick of the new cadets usually choosing the best boys who lived close to its facilities. Thus it was that Norman Lambert Joyner a Blacksmith’s apprentice from the harbour-side suburb of Paddington was picked for the Naval Cadets. He was obviously an extremely able lad as in 1913 - 1914 he was awarded a gold prize fob for “greatest general proficiency in (the) interstate competitions.” (see Lot 91). This was a very impressive win as the ranks of Naval cadets had swollen dramatically from 748 in 1911 to 3,332 cadets in training at the outbreak of World War I in 1914. From the safety of their lofty office, politicians in war-times often make ‘brave’ decisions usually at the expense of the young and, so it was that during the Great War that those in power tried twice to introduce adult conscription for overseas war service. Not that there was any shortage of freshly minted ‘adult’ eighteen-year-olds, who encouraged by jingoistic war posters signed up to take on 'the Hun,’ resulting in over 333,000 enlisted men serving overseas with shockingly two out of three either killed or injured. The Navy chose Joyner but he did not choose the Navy and, anxious for action he joined up for overseas service to fight in the Trench Mortar Batteries of the A(ustralia) I(mperial) F(orces) on the 20th August 1916, the very day he celebrated his eighteenth birthday. Joyner was one of the lucky ones who survived the War, marrying in 1924 and working as a fitter and turner well into his seventies. Not so lucky were many of the ‘lost generation’ of young Australians who were irreparably maimed or perished for the Empire on foreign soil.
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1 June 2019 11:00 AEST
Paddington, Sydney, Australia
Smalls Auctions
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Bid Increments
| From: | To: | Increments: |
|---|---|---|
| A$0 | A$99 | A$5 |
| A$100 | A$999 | A$10 |
| A$1,000 | A$4,999 | A$50 |
| A$5,000 | A$9,999 | A$100 |
| A$10,000 + | A$250 |