Unidentified uniform or costume - help please photographer was S. Edwin

[rossko57]

We should also give some consideration, Canada had a navy too.  In fact the same imperial navy until 1910, then a short lived Naval Service of Canada, before RCN proper.  And of course dockyards with an appetite for already skilled men. (providing repair yard capability for RN on both coasts)
Is this a possible post-emigration career?
So far as I can make out, uniform would be standard RN.  Fiddling with regulation uniform might be a bit more likely "out thar".

A photo to home may then have been copied in UK before onward transmission to Oz.  (Leaving the Grays mystery)

----

I'm looking into the possibility of being a reservist while in fulltime dockyard employ.  Seems like something they might prohibit - when you need the reserve, you want full dockyard crew as well.
Reserve officer insignia are usually obvious, wavy rings or different colour collar tabs - but we seem to have a possible officer type with no rings to make wavy.  How would you mark that out I wonder.

[aus*jen]

Yes Rossko, I have considered this as a post-emigration career for the carpenter.  Did some
searching online for Canadian Navy uniforms but the cap insignia appeared to be similar to RN.
Needs more research.


Jen.

[rossko57]

Yup, identical insignia, ratings got HMCS on their hatbands but I do not think officers got 'CANADA' on their shoulders until the 1920s

Any of these guys could have been reservists and left a paper trail there, but photo makes no more sense as reservist than as regular navy.  Just offering an option for an essentially civilian dock worker to pose in uniform.
Photo makes no sense as civilian crew either, those damnable cuffs are out of place!

'little' background (270 pages!), a thesis around social history of edwardian Portsmouth Royal Dockyard workers
https://researchportal.port.ac.uk/portal/files/5795106/Mel_Bassett_108964_Doctoral_Thesis_Final_Submission.pdf
Tidbit found : seems that in 1906 at least, Admiralty barred established dockyard workers from volunteering for reserves.  That indicates enough had done so already to cause worry, although many would be militia rather than naval.  Boer war period.

340 pages on dockyard workforce
https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/361129/1/87081318.pdf
including a sailmaker section

[aus*jen]

    Thanks for the links Rossko,    agree, a bit of light reading   interesting subject though.

Jen.

[aus*jen]

  Have followed through with some research on the carpenter who emigrated to Canada in 1906.
  - National Archives of Canada have his attestation papers for Canadian Overseas Expeditionary
  Force, 181st. Overseas Battalion.  In those documents he was asked  'Have you ever served
  in any Military Forces"   Answer was "yes, Garrison Artillery".  Would someone please explain
  what this was please?

Jen.

[John915]

Good morning,

Garrison artillery manned the big guns, usually mounted in the forts around Britain and the colonies. So places like Plymouth, Portsmouth, Chatham, Sydney harbour where the protective cover against the French, Spanish etc was situated to defend our dockyards.

They were also mobile but not in the same way as Horse or Field artillery. They needed huge teams of horses or trucks to move them around. When you see footage of very big guns firing in WW1 that's usually Garrison artillery. Can't do a link but google "Garrison artillery, western front, ww1".

John915

[aus*jen]

Thankyou John,   Would the Admiralty permit dockyard workers to be part of this Garrison?

Jen.

[John915]

Good morning,

The dockyard workers would have been civilian employees. However it is not beyond the possibility that some also joined the local militia.

There were militia artillery units so anything is possible, in fact I know that the Palmerston forts around Portsmouth were partially manned by militia at one time.

John915

[aus*jen]

Thankyou John,  I was curious as to where the carpenter served in the Garrison Artillery.
                         He was a carpenter at HM Dockyards Portsmouth before he emigrated to
                         Canada in 1906.

Jen.