Canadian Navy Presents Namesake Warship Display to the Town of Oakville in Celebration of the Navy Centennial

OAKVILLE, ONTARIO – On June 19, 2010, a rep­re­sen­ta­tive of the Cana­di­an Navy who lives in Oakville, Ontario will present a framed pic­to­r­i­al his­to­ry of the Oakville name­sake war­ship, HMCS Oakville to mark the cen­ten­ni­al of the Cana­di­an Navy. Lieu­tenant (Navy) Glenn Wool­frey MMM, CD, local res­i­dent and Exec­u­tive Offi­cer of HMCS Star will present the dis­play to His Wor­ship May­or Rob Bur­ton. The dis­play includes a pho­to­graph of HMCS Oakville, a pic­ture of the ship’s badge and a short his­to­ry of the ship’s ser­vice.

Since the Cana­di­an Navy was estab­lished in 1910, more than 300 Cana­di­an Navy ships have been named for com­mu­ni­ties from coast to coast. HMCS Oakville was chris­tened at Lake­side Park in Oakville, ON, on Novem­ber 5, 1941 and then com­mis­sioned into the then Roy­al Cana­di­an Navy on Novem­ber 18 1941 in Mon­tre­al, Que­bec. The flower class corvette arrived in Hal­i­fax ten days lat­er and joined Hal­i­fax Force on her arrival. 

On its for­ma­tion in March 1942, she trans­ferred to West­ern Local Escort Force. In July, she returned to Hal­i­fax Force to escort Hal­i­fax-Aru­ba con­voys and, on her sec­ond arrival at Aru­ba late in August, was divert­ed to rein­force con­voy TAW.15 (Aru­ba-Key West sec­tion). The con­voy was attacked 28 August in the Wind­ward Pas­sage, los­ing four ships, but Oakville­sank the sea­soned U 94, in part by ram­ming her. 

After tem­po­rary repairs at Guan­tanamo, she arrived at Hal­i­fax on 16 Sep­tem­ber and there com­plet­ed repairs on 1 Decem­ber. She then joined the Unit­ed States East­ern Sea Fron­tier Com­mand to escort New York-Guan­tanamo con­voys until 22 March 1943 when she arrived at Hal­i­fax to join West­ern Local Escort Force. 

She served with three of its escort groups: W‑7 from June 1943; W‑8 from Decem­ber 1943 and W‑6 from April 1944. In mid-Decem­ber, she began a major refit at Galve­ston, Texas, which includ­ed foc’sle exten­sion that was com­plet­ed on March 29 1944. After minor repairs at Hal­i­fax, she pro­ceed­ed to Bermu­da for workups in May, there­after return­ing to her duties with Escort Group W‑6.

The com­mu­ni­ty of Oakville will be involved in the cer­e­mo­ny with rep­re­sen­ta­tion from TOWARF, a Cana­di­an Coast Guard Aux­il­iary unit estab­lished in 1954, pro­vid­ing marine search and res­cue ser­vice to the boaters of Oakville and West­ern Lake Ontario, the Roy­al Cana­di­an Sea Cadet Corp OAKVILLE , Scouts Cana­da, Bur­loak Legion, and mem­bers of HMCS Star ships company. 

As part of the cel­e­bra­tion the Oakville Muse­um will present “A Nod to the Navy; Oakville at Sea” (June 19th – July 4th) The Oakville Museum’s cel­e­bra­tion of the Roy­al Cana­di­an Navy Cen­ten­ni­al will fea­ture art cre­at­ed by T.A. Blake­lock Stu­dents, images and arti­facts from HMCS Oakville, an inter­ac­tive recre­ation of a ship’s com­mu­ni­ca­tion room and a spe­cial trib­ute to the Women’s Roy­al Cana­da Naval Service. 

The pub­lic is wel­come to join the cel­e­bra­tions on Sat­ur­day June 19, 2010 start­ing at 10 am at Lake­side Park with a tra­di­tion­al fly past from a her­itage Har­vard air­craft, fol­lowed by a rib­bon cut­ting cer­e­mo­ny, speech and walk­through of the muse­um exhib­it, with cake served at the Oakville Muse­um. Fol­low­ing this cer­e­mo­ny TOWARF is hold­ing an Open House with refresh­ments at their build­ing below Oakville Muse­um, and wel­comes all vis­i­tors to come and see what this Search and Res­cue Unit does for the local boat­ing community. 

The Town of Oakville is pleased to wel­come two of the orig­i­nal? HMCS Oakville crew mem­bers, Jack Rus­sell and Joe Smyth to the cer­e­monies and are pleased that they are able to join us on this spe­cial day. 

Sim­i­lar pre­sen­ta­tions are being made across Cana­da, to bring atten­tion to the Cen­ten­ni­al of the Cana­di­an Navy and to high­light the con­nec­tion the Navy has with com­mu­ni­ties large and small in every cor­ner of the country. 

Source:
Depart­ment of Nation­al Defence, Kanada