Canada's rapid naval expansion began before it had a domestic college for training officers. Even in 1940, Nelles needed fellow officers and Greenwich alumni to make the case to naval minister Angus L. Macdonald for a formal Canadian establishment. The small prewar officer corps helps explain the delay, but an expanding and increasingly independent navy still needed its own system for producing and educating officers. Macdonald approved the college in November 1940, after wartime growth was already under way.
Notable Point · 35:58-38:22
Building officers after the war had begun
Nelles still had to organize a deputation in 1940 to persuade naval minister Angus L. Macdonald that Canada's rapidly expanding navy needed its own officer college.