Commonwealth Youth Movement : The idea of an Empire Youth Movement was conceived by Major F. J. Ney following the Conference on Education and Leisure (Vancouver) in 1929. The establishment of an Empire Youth Movement was seen by Ney and his colleagues, both in Canada and the United Kingdom, as a means of uniting and educating the youth of the British Empire in order to provide an agency for spiritual and moral leadership, to combat youth delinquency and to provide a necessary counterweight to the perceived threat of the communist and fascist youth movements of the 1930s. With the inclusion of Empire youth in the coronation of King George VI on 12 May 1937 and the special Westminster Abbey Service of Youth and Albert Hall Youth Rally in May 1938 serving as catalysts, the Empire Youth Movement began formally to take shape. Designed to complement the spiritual and educational work carried out by existing youth organizations, such as the Boy Scouts and others, its activities were targeted towards youth between the ages of 16 and 20. The most important components of the movement's original nine point programme during the pre-war period were: the organization of Empire Youth Sunday celebrations and the establishment of a Youth City complex in London, England for the accommodation of visiting empire youth.
Empire Youth Sunday was simultaneously inaugurated by services in Westminster Abbey and Stanley Park, Vancouver, in May 1938. Although the Empire Youth Movement was not intended to be a religious movement per se, spiritual content was considered an integral element of its service to the Empire--to God and the Sovereign. (Following 1953 its motto would officially become: "First unto God and then to the Queen."). After 1938, Empire Youth Sunday became an annual event, and was held on the Sunday nearest to the 1937 coronation date. During the Second World War, Youth Sunday assumed a special patriotic importance and was celebrated throughout the Commonwealth--in Canada, Africa and Australia. Youth Sunday was officially celebrated until 1964 and provided youth of the Empire and later Commonwealth with the opportunity to "dedicate themselves anew to the service of God through their citizenship of the British Empire" (H.M. The King, Empire Youth Sunday Message, June 10, 1945).
The construction of a Youth City complex was perhaps the second most important and certainly the most ambitious activity of the pre-war Empire Youth Movement. The announcement of plans for building a Youth City was made by Lord Bessborough at a meeting in the Guildhall, London in January 1939 and attracted widespread support. All plans were put on hold, however, with the outbreak of the Second World War.
Apart from the celebration of Youth Sunday, all of the activities of the Empire Youth Movement ceased during the war. In 1945, Ney re-established the movement. In preparation for the coronation of Queen Elizabeth in 1953, its name was modified to reflect the changing role of Great Britain in relation to its former colonies. With the word Commonwealth replacing the now dated Empire in its title, the original programme of the movement was expanded to include fourteen points or activities as follows: the establishment of a Commonwealth Youth Week in addition to Commonwealth Youth Sunday, the affiliation of colleges, schools and youth groups, the establishment of guilds of youth service and recreation, the organization of camps, the provision of special facilities for educational travel, the publication of a magazine, inter-Commonwealth scholarships, the development of an Order of Chivalry, the building of a Commonwealth Youth City, the establishment of a youth training centre, the establishment of Commonwealth Youth Committees in order to provide inter-commonwealth youth links and the establishment of a trust fund. Perhaps the most important activity of the post-war movement was the annual Commonwealth Youth Quest.
The idea of the "quest" grew from the concept of the need for an Order of Chivalry first expressed by F. J. Ney in a speech to officers and men of the Royal Air Force at Lydda on St. George's Day, 23 April, 1945. The Order of Chivalry and in particular the notion of an ecumenical quest became one of the most important elements of the post-war movement. Formally established following the coronation activities of 1953, the Commonwealth Youth Quest was never intended to be a mere holiday tour. The object of the quest was to provide opportunities for carefully selected young people of actual or potential leadership qualities to see the Commonwealth and meet its people. Members of all Commonwealth countries were eligible to apply to be "questors" and in any given year Commonwealth Youth Quest representatives could be found from the United Kingdom, South Africa, Canada, India, Pakistan, Malaya, Gibraltar, Uganda, Gambia, Kenya, Zanzibar, Tanganyika, the Bahamas and Nigeria. The quests were organized on an annual basis and in some years simultaneous quests occurred. Each quest consisted of a tour, a related Commonwealth Youth Conference and a memorial vigil. During the years 1954 to 1970, the quest toured Great Britain, Canada, Jamestown (Virginia), Europe, Gibraltar and Malta. Three attempts to organize a quest for Nigeria (1961-1963) failed due to the political instability of the region. Ney organized and lead the annual quests until 1969, when failing health forced him to delegate his duties to John N. Franklin. The last quest took place in 1970.
As the political unity of Commonwealth began to decline and disintegrate so too did the purpose and relevance of the Commonwealth Youth Movement and with the death of Major F. J. Ney in 1973, the movement ceased to exist.
