Black dress trousers

Date1940-1960

Object number00045296

NameTrousers

Mediumwool, metal (zip and fastners)

DimensionsOverall: 47.5 x 1.2 x 105 cm

ClassificationsClothing and personal items

Credit LineANMM Collection Gift from Roy Foster

Terms

DescriptionThe Volunteer Coastal Patrol, the oldest voluntary sea rescue organisation in Australia, was established on 27 March 1937. It evolved out of discussions between Royal Navy Captain Maurice Blackwood and Harold Nobbs and Bill Giles, who believed that an organisation of volunteer yachtsmen would be beneficial in a country with a 12,000 nautical mile coastline. This material documents some of the uniforms worn by members of the VCP.HistoryRoy Foster was interested in boating before the outbreak of World War II. After a business trip overseas, Foster returned to find his 22-foot half cabin launch with a two-cylinder Chapman engine confiscated in case of enemy sabotage. Foster was a friend of Ray Winegott who was a member of the Volunteer Coastal Patrol. Winegott, needing extra crew members on PERT invited Foster to join him with Bruce Denley, Bill Horsely and Frank McDonald, who together patrolled the Harbour by night whilst working in their own jobs during the day. When Armistice was declared Roy still maintained his boating interest acquiring a 27' cruiser JANNETTE, a Halverson 36' called WHITECREST and then the first SIEGLINDE, a 50 footer which he then enlisted in the Patrol and resumed regular activities with the Patrol after his brief break. Foster became Divisional Skipper for Broken Bay and conducted numerous activities for the Broken Bay Division in which he also gave lectures on coastal navigation for members of the public and new Patrol members. Bruce Denley, Bill Horsely and Jack Galloway joined Roy as crew on SIEGLINDE with Bruce as his number 1. Eventually Roy became Divisional Skipper of Survey and this involved SIEGLINDE in spending several weeks at Lake Macquarie to provide temperature information from the water near Vales Point Power Station so that a cooling apparatus for Munmorah Power Station could be designed. Roy sold SIEGLINDE and some years later acquired SIEGLINDE II which was also listed with the Patrol with Bruce Denley and Bill Horsely as crew. A major highlight for Roy Foster was being asked by long term Officer Commander of the Royal Volunteer Coastal Patrol Skipper Harold Nobbs to become skipper of the historic vessel KRAIT. In 1982 he escorted KRAIT to Ballina for repairs with SIEGLINDE II which proved to be a dreadful trip nearly losing KRAIT on the way up and crossing the Ballina Bar. As Patrol Vessel Survey SIEGLINDE II was required to act as host ship representing the Patrol for entertainment and other activities. As Roy got older, he had to cease activities with the Patrol and sold his beloved vessel. The Volunteer Coastal Patrol, the oldest voluntary sea rescue organisation in Australia, was established on 27 March 1937. It evolved out of discussions between Royal Navy Captain Maurice Blackwood and Harold Nobbs and Bill Giles, who believed that an organisation of volunteer yachtsmen would be beneficial in a country with a 12,000 nautical mile coastline. Their ideas were presented to Commander Rupert Long, Director of Naval Intelligence, who made recommendations to the Naval Board concerning the establishment of the VCP. The Naval Board agreed to the concept and the organisation was formed from a nucleus of 12 boat owners. The VCP's objectives were to bring together yachtsmen and those interested in small ships and encourage them to undergo a course of training 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. The VCP was organised at two levels, consisting of National headquarters and individual divisions with two parallel arms directing the administration and operations of the organisation. Instructors were drawn mainly from naval personnel to provide training in necessary operational manoeuvres. The visual signal section in particular reached a very high standard. When World War II was declared in 1939, members of the Patrol affirmed their desire to serve their country as a volunteer service, assisting the Royal Australian Navy, Australian Army, Water Police and Maritime Services Board in the vital defence of Sydney Harbour. Oil depots, wharves, troopships, dockyards, the State ammunition dump in Bantry Bay and flying-boat base in Rose Bay were all patrolled by the VCP until war's end. In 1940 the Patrol had some 500 vessels and 2,000 members on its register. The Patrol went into camp in 1939 at The Basin, Pittwater and in early 1941 at Clontarf, to concentrate on training and operational exercises with the Army. The discipline and courses of the VCP were influenced by the association it had with the Navy, Army and Police, forming the basis of the organisation that we know today. 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. In 1942, after much bitter debate with the RAN, then Commanding Officer Arthur Morgan and his skippers refused the RAN's terms and conditions for amalgamation, 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 to 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 of value 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 the Queen 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.