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Coronation Festival 1953 glass, Auxiliary Naval Patrol, RANVR
Coronation Festival 1953 glass, Auxiliary Naval Patrol, RANVR

Coronation Festival 1953 glass, Auxiliary Naval Patrol, RANVR

Date1953
Object number00044375
NameDrinking glass
MediumGlass, paint
DimensionsOverall: 103 x 66 mm (66 mm)
ClassificationsCommemorative artefacts
Credit LineANMM Collection Gift from Campbell Middleton
DescriptionThis commemorative drinking glass is inscribed with RANVR Naval Auxiliary Patrol Coronation 1953. It was produced to celebrate the 1953 coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in Britain and was owned by Ernie Tree, a long dedicated member of the Sydney Region of the Volunteer Coastal Patrol.HistoryThe Volunteer Coastal Patrol (VCP) is the oldest voluntary sea rescue organisation in Australia and was established on 27 March 1937. The VCP's objectives were to bring together yachtsmen and those interested in small ships and encourage them to undergo a training course so that their services would be of value to the authorities in rescue situations, and to train and educate these yachtsmen so that Australia's waterways could be made safer for those who ventured upon them in small craft. On 12 June 1941 the RAN established the voluntary Naval Auxiliary Patrol along the lines of the VCP. Through control of this body, the RAN took over all the autonomous coastal divisions of the VCP, with a view to doing the same with the Port of Sydney division. After much bitter debate with the RAN the VCP Commanding Officer Arthur Morgan and his skippers refused the RAN's terms and conditions for amalgamation in 1942, and the VCP ceased its relationship with the Navy and Army. However it maintained its patrol function with the Water Police and was absorbed as an auxiliary into the National Emergency Service Organisation (NES). The VCP continued to operate in the post-war period in a purely voluntary capacity, constituting an important element in national security. Its objectives were rewritten to make the organisation valuable to the country in times of emergency as well as peace, by making waterways safer for yachtsmen and by setting an example to all those on the water. In 1974 Her Majesty bestowed the 'Royal' prefix to the Volunteer Coastal Patrol. While the VCP was originally designed to use properly equipped privately owned vessels, in the 1980s this became unfeasible and the Patrol now owns some 50 vessels.SignificanceThis glass represents the significance of the Royal coronation in 1953 to peoples of the Commonwealth.