March 2023
On 11 March, over two hundred fifty participants celebrated the Centennial Gala for His Majesty’s Canadian Ship (HMCS) STAR, Hamilton’s Naval Reserve Division at LIUNA Station. The architecturally grand former Canadian National Railway station on James Street North, now a banquet facility called LiUNA Station, has been around almost as long as HMCS STAR, which stood-up as the Hamilton Half Company of the Royal Canadian Volunteer Reserve (RCNVR) on 15 March 1923.
Amongst the attendees were fifteen former Commanding Officers and Cox’ns of STAR along with Commodore P.J. Montgomery, OMM, CD, Commander Naval Reserve, the Honorable Anita Anand, Member of Parliament (MP) for Oakville and Minister of National Defence, the Honorable Karina Gould, PM for Burlington and Minister of International Development and Minister of Democratic Institutions, and Pam Damoff, MP for Oakville-North Burlington.
Highlights of the night included a toast to King Charles III, something that would have been the first time for many of the attendees, and a humorous story told by former Commanding Officer Lieutenant-Commander Neil Bell, of a time back in 1972, when the building was still an active train station and his final stop from his home to attend weekly training at STAR. After entering the station, he observed three U.S. Navy sailors lounging about on their kit bags. As he was in uniform, a young and keen Sub-Lieutenant Bell debated whether he should insist on a salute from these sailors, something he wondered whether he would get from these very “at-ease” sailors. Pretending not to notice them by observing the impressive architecture of the building, he successfully solved his dilemma and carried on his way to the unit.
It was only later that LCdr Bell learnt that he had accidentally wondered onto the set of the Jack Nicholson movie, The Last Detail.
As HMCS STAR enters its second century of service to Canada, the Naval Reserve Division will continue to provide valuable training opportunities for its over 200 officers and sailors, both in-unit and deployed on the Royal Canadian Navy’s domestic and international operations.
The current Commanding Officer is Lieutenant-Commander Michael Di Berardo, CD. The current Cox’n is Chief Petty Officer Second Class Roy Adamson, CD.
The HMCS STAR story
The second oldest of now two dozen naval reserve divisions in Canada, the Hamilton Half Company RCNVR began with a complement of about 50 men, wearing used World War I naval uniforms and training out of the old Imperial Building at 20 Hughson Street South, in downtown Hamilton.
By the end of 1923, the Hamilton Half Company re-located to a more appropriate building on the waterfront, the former Grant’s Sail Loft building, located at 469 Bay Street North.
The Hamilton Half Company was recommissioned as HMCS STAR on 1 November 1941 and by October 1943, re-located to its first purpose-built facility along the waterfront, at the foot of Catherine Street North, where it remains to this day.
The Catherine Street location featured a collection of wooden “temporary” buildings that housed offices, messes, a galley, barracks, a drill hall, along with a sports field and training areas for land and sea-based training. HMCS STAR also served as a recruiting and training centre for the Royal Canadian Navy’s war effort, with a total of 7,490 officers, men, and women passing through the establishment.
In the post-war years, HMCS STAR’s establishment would the third most important Royal Canadian Naval training facility in Canada and the fifth largest. By 1952, the Great Lakes Training Centre stood up at the Catherine Street location, with two reserve training ships, HMCS Porte St Louis and HMCS Porte St. Jean, were permanently stationed at HMCS STAR. The following year the Commander of Naval Divisions (COND) re-located from Ottawa to STAR’s facility and was housed in a newly built (1954) brick building, the cornerstone of which was laid by Rear-Admiral (Ret’d) Walter Hose, CBE, RCN, founder of the RCNVR.
Like many Royal Canadian Navy Reserve Divisions, HMCS STAR had a naval air contingent, but due to its close proximity to HMCS York in Toronto, STAR was restricted to just a support unit for ground crew and maintenance. No. 1 Training Air Group sent STAR one Hurricane and two Seafire aircraft for their use at RCAF Station Hamilton (now known as the Hamilton International Airport) and the unit conducted joint training with HMCS York at RCAF Station Downsview.
The Unification of the Forces in the mid-1960s saw great change come to STAR. The Great Lakes Training Centre disbanded in 1964, as did the Air Arm maintenance unit. COND re-located to HMCS Stadacona in Halifax, along with HMCS Porte St Louis and HMCS Porte St. Jean.
However, through the change from the traditional naval uniforms, through the “green” years of the Unification, when members of the RCN, the Royal Canadian Air Force, and the Canadian Army all wore the same green uniform, and finally back to a distinctive environmental uniform, the members of HMCS STAR have served with honour and distinction.
In May 1997, HMCS STAR officially opened their new state-of-the-art building, replacing all of the original “temporary” buildings.
On 30 August 2003, the Jetty at HMCS STAR became the new home for HMCS Haida, the last of the 27 Tribal Class destroyers built for the Royal Canadian Navy between 1937 and 1945. HMCS Haida had been moored as a floating museum in Toronto Harbour since 1965.
Commanding Officers
From 1923 to the present, HMCS STAR has had 37 commanding officers:
- Lieutenant-Commander Michael Di Berardo, CD (2022–present)
- Lieutenant-Commander Marie-Sonya Sowa, CD (2020–2022)
- Commander Stephen Churm, CD (2016–2020)
- Lieutenant-Commander Glenn Woolfrey, MMM, CD (2012–2016)
- Lieutenant-Commander Shekhar Gothi, CD (2010–2012)
- Lieutenant-Commander Dana Baars, CD (2008–2010)
- Lieutenant-Commander Glenna Swing, CD (2005–2008)
- Lieutenant-Commander Neil S. Bell, CD (2002–2005)
- Lieutenant-Commander Doug Martin, CD (1998–2002)
- Lieutenant-Commander Peter Duynstee, CD (1995–1998)
- Commander Alaric Woodrow, CD (1991–1995)
- Commander Douglas Yate Sen Mark, CD (1988–1991)
- Commander Robert James “Bob” Williamson, CD (1985–1988)
- Commander Douglas Stewart “Doug” Woodliffe, CD (1982–1985)
- Commander Robert Hugh “Bob” Bowman, CD (1979–1982)
- Commander Martin John “Marty” Pandzich, CD (1975–1979)
- Commander Frederick Joseph Lee, CD (1971–1975)
- Commander Colin DiCenzo, CD (1969–1971)
- Commander Ross Taylor “Buck” Bennett, CMM, CD (1966–1969)
- Commander Harry Tilbury (1964–1966)
- Commander Bob Galbraith Wilson (1963–1964)
- Commander Wilf Houghton (1958–1963)
- Acting Commander John Henry Curtis (1953–1958)
- Acting Commander George Holcombe Parke (1950–1953)
- Commander Samuel Foster Ross (1946–1950)
- Acting Lieutenant Commander William Hugh Adamson (1946–1946)
- Acting Lieutenant Commander Robert Guy Baker (1946–1946)
- Acting Commander Colin Stinson Glassco (1945–1946)
- Acting Commander Reginald (Cowboy) Jackson (1944–1945)
- Lieutenant John McFetrick (1941–1944)
- Lieutenant Walter Herbert Bruce Thomson (1941)
- Lieutenant Frank Elwood Waterman (1940–1941)
- Lieutenant William Morrison (1940–1940)
- Acting Lieutenant John Cyril Hart (1937–1940)
- Lieutenant Henry Lloyd George Westland (1934–1937)
- Lieutenant William George Beaver (1929–1934)
- Lieutenant Ralph Howard Yeates (1923–1929)
Notable former members include:
Rear-Admiral Jennifer Bennett (1975–1979) – former commander of the Canadian Naval Reserve from 2007 to 2011 and named as one of Canada’s 100 Most Powerful Women in 2011.
Commodore Ross Bennett (1947, 1963, 1966–1969) – former judge of the Ontario Court of Justice (Provincial Division).
Gwynne Dyer (1959–1965) – former senior lecturer in war studies at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst and London-based independent Canadian journalist, author and creator of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) television series War in 1983.
William Jarvis (1952) – former politician in Ontario.
Robert Nixon (1946–1950) – former politician in Ontario and the son of former Ontario Premier Harry Nixon.
Sources: STAR Centennial Gala – Hamilton Naval Heritage, Port-of-Hamilton-Celebrates-100-Years-_-book.pdf (hopaports.ca), HMCS Star, critical to Canada’s wartime naval response, celebrates 100 years | TheSpec.com, HMCS Star – Wikipedia, Hamilton Naval Heritage – Naval history and heritage of Hamilton & HMCS STAR
