Gerald Hollis World War II as he was colour blind. He joined the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve (RNVR) in 1940, and was commissioned into the Royal Navy in 1942. He served as a physical training officer at the Britannia Royal Naval College in Dartmouth, Devon. The college was moved to Eaton Hall, Cheshire between 1943 and 1946, because of Nazi bombings. At the end of hostilities, Hollis felt drawn to holy orders: from 1945 to 1947, he trained for ordination at Wells Theological College. He was ordained into the Church of England in 1947 and then served his curacy at St Dunstan's,
Royal Naval College of Canada Canadian Navy dockyard at Esquimalt. Classes were also held on the Dominion Government Ship "Naden", commissioned as a tender for training in sail. The College was closed in 1922. In the years between 1922 and 1940, Canadian naval cadets went to the Royal Navy's Royal Naval College in Portsmouth. The Royal Naval College of Canada was established to impart a complete education in Naval Science. Candidates were British subjects between 14 and 16 years of age. The terms and curriculum approximated those of Naval Colleges in Britain save for the initial two year rather than three-year program which was followed