We Care!

History of a march
Heart of oak o
by Virginia Beaton
When more than 1000
Maritime Forces
Atlantic personnel marched
through the streets of Halifax
on May 4, 2010, it was to the
tune of the Canadian Navy’s
traditional march, titled Heart
of Oak.
The march was a fitting
choice for the day, which was
the 100th anniversary of the
day that the Naval Service Act
received Royal Assent, creating
the Canadian Navy. Mayor
Peter Kelly of Halifax Regional
Municipality declared the day
to be Navy Day, and granted
the Navy the Freedom of the
City so that they might march
through the city with drums
beating, Colours flying and
bayonets fixed. Originally the
favoured march of the Royal
Navy, Heart of Oak is the official
or semi-official march of the
Canadian, Royal Australian and
Royal New Zealand Navies.
With its bright tempo,
energetic rhythms and stirring
lyrics, Heart of Oak always
seems to motivate parade
participants to stand tall and
keep up the pace. The words
are, without a doubt, addressed
to the rank and file military
member; the words have a
directness and clarity that
invoke a sense of comradeship,
a shared purpose and above all,
a sense of pride.
Heart of Oak made its
debut in London in 1759, as a
poem written and read by the
actor David Garrick during a
Christmas pantomime show
titled Harlequin’s Invasion.
Before long, it was set to music
by the composer Dr. William
Boyce, and its popularity soon
rivalled or exceeded that of the
anthem Rule Britannia, written
by Thomas Arne in 1745.
From its beginning, Heart of
Oak quickly became a call to
arms. Naval tradition has it that
before the Battle of Trafalgar
in 1805, the drummers aboard
the British ships beat out
the rhythms of the tune as
in Britain in the mid-18th
century, when almost every
country in Europe was locked
in conflicts over colonial and
economic ambitions. The
battlegrounds extended to
North America, the Caribbean,
the Mediterranean and India,
and the fighting took place
both on land and at sea. For
nations such as England,
{{
“The words are, without a doubt, addressed to
the rank and file military member; the words have a
directness and clarity that invoke a sense of comradeship,
a shared purpose and above all, a sense of pride.”
Come, cheer up, my lads, ‘tis to glory we steer,
To add something more to this wonderful year;
To honour we call you, as free men not slaves,
For who are so free as the sons of the waves?
Heart of oak are our ships, jolly tars are our men,
We always are ready; Steady, boys, steady.
We’ll fight and we’ll conquer again and again.
the sailors mustered to their
stations. It flourished as a
standard naval march through
the 19th and 20th centuries and
now the 21st century, as the age
of sail gave way to the modern
age.
What inspired Garrick and
Boyce in the creation of this
music, and why, more than 250
years later, does it still resonate
with meaning for its listeners?
Heart of Oak had its genesis
France, Germany and Spain,
military success or failure had
immense impact on everything
from political and geographic
power to control of trade and
resources.
In Garrick’s poem, the
wonderful year to which he
referred was 1759, a year during
which the British Navy and
Army won several important
military actions within a
short period of time. The
groundwork for these victories
had begun a year earlier,
when a massive British force
departed Halifax to attack the
French fortress of Louisbourg,
according to historian Arthur
Herman in his book To Rule
The Waves: How the British
Navy Shaped the Modern World
(HarperCollins Publishers,
2004). Herman writes “..in 1758
Admiral Boscawen and General
Amherst ran a joint army-navy
siege of Louisbourg, forcing
the city to surrender and thus
cutting off the French army in
Canada.”
In August 1759, Admiral
Boscawen was patrolling
with his fleet off the coast of
Portugal, where he met the
French navy’s Mediterranean
fleet, based out of Toulon and
commanded by Admiral Jean-
François de La Clue-Sabran.
During the Battle of Lagos,
Admiral Boscawen captured
three of the French ships and
sank two more, leaving the
remainder defeated and in
disarray. Only a few weeks later,
the British public heard news of
yet another sweeping military
success. In September 1759 in
Quebec City, the British army
commanded by General James
Wolfe triumphed over General
Montcalm’s army at the Battle
of the Plains of Abraham.
This would lead to Britain
establishing its North American
interests more securely and by
1763, the Treaty of Paris would
assure that Britain would have
the dominant interest on that
continent.
Finally, there was the Battle
of Quiberon Bay on November
20. At this time, the French
government was planning