Ney, Frederick James, 1884-1973 : Frederick James Ney was born in Westfield, Sussex County, England, 19 September 1884, the son of Edward Frederick Ney and Susannah Maria Vicenta Barra. He was educated at Rye Grammar School and became Headmaster of English College, Nicosia, Cyprus and St. Mary's High School, Cairo, Egypt. He emigrated to Canada in 1909 to become Headmaster of Russell High School in Manitoba.
His energy and enthusiasm attracted the notice of the provincial government and he became Chief Secretary of Manitoba's Department of Education in 1910. In that year, Ney organized the first exchange of teachers between Manitoba and Great Britain, describing this successful tour in his book "Britishers in Britain" (London: Times Book Club, 1911). He organized a more extensive program in 1912 taking a large group of teachers to the Holy Land and the Mediterranean region. These tours and exchanges blossomed into the "Hands Across the Seas" movement which later became organized more formally as the Overseas Education League. Further exchanges of teachers followed with New Zealand in 1913 and Britain in 1914 but Ney's enlistment in the British Army in the First World War interrupted this work. He suffered serious injuries during combat in France that affected his health for the rest of his life, causing periodic physical collapse. Promoted to Major in 1918, Ney was mentioned in dispatches three times, and awarded the Military Cross, Belgian Croix de guerre, and French Croix de guerre. At the armistice, the Army posted him to the Imperial War Graves Commission.
He returned to Canada, however, in 1920 to resume work with the Manitoba Department of Education and become Vice-President of the Overseas Education League. In that year, he also became Executive Secretary of the National Council of Education which had been founded in 1919 to improve moral and civic education in Canada and to foster cooperation between the provinces. Under his guidance, the National Council eclipsed the Canadian Education Association in the 1920s as the leading national educational organization, hosting regular meetings of provincial Ministers and Deputy Ministers of Education and conferences on issues like education and leisure. During the 1920s and 1930s it sponsored the National Lectureship Scheme which brought distinguished speakers to Canada from Britain and other parts of the Empire including Winston Churchill, L. S. Amery, Field Marshal Allenby, H. A. L. Fisher, and Lord and Lady Baden Powell, among others. The Council also worked to improve the quality of text books, furthered the development of adult education and promoted the tours and exchanges of teachers and students organized by the Overseas Education League. The two organizations cooperated closely under Ney's leadership, sharing offices in Toronto, Montreal, Winnipeg, and London, and had a joint secretary in France. By the end of the 1930s, over 10,000 teachers and students had participated in tours and exchanges under the auspices of the Overseas Education League.
The influence of the National Council of Education, however, waned in the 1930s as the provincial governments became suspicious of increased federal involvement in education and proposals for a Dominion Bureau of Education. In addition, Ney's increasingly imperialist and religious agenda diverged from the view of mainstream Canada, alienating supporters of the National Council and encouraging the revival of the Canadian Education Association and the creation of the Canadian Association for Adult Education in 1935. Funding dried up in the economic reality of the Depression making Ney increasingly dependent upon the financial support of James A. Richardson and a few other key supporters. After the Second World War, Ney tried to revive the National Council and when that failed, arrange a merger in 1947 with the Canadian Education Association. The latter organization "expressed appreciation for Major Ney's earlier work in promoting teacher exchange and Empire unity, but said they did not see how it would be possible for the CEA to be affiliated in some way with the Council". Without financial or political support, the National Council of Education was defunct for all intents and purposes, a victim of too close an identification with Ney's interests. The Overseas Education League, however, continued its work of organizing teacher and student exchanges until the 1960s.
In the environment of the 1930s, Ney gradually had turned his efforts from education to the spiritual and moral development of youth in the face of the growing threats he perceived in communism and fascism. This change of focus resulted in the creation of the Empire Youth Movement as a counterweight to fascist and communist youth movements. The movement received a powerful boost from his involvement in the organization in 1937 of the Empire Youth Rally at the Albert Hall and Youth Sunday services at Westminster Abbey in conjunction with the coronation of King George VI. Leading figures in British society like Lord Bessborough and Lord Elton lent their names to Ney's projects, the most ambitious of which was the construction of Youth City. Youth City was to be a complex for the accommodation of empire youth visiting London and a focus for Empire Youth Movement activities, but its construction fell victim to the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939. Wartime patriotic fervour, however, leant increased significance to the celebration of Youth Sunday services in the Commonwealth, which continued officially until 1964. With the outbreak of war, Ney participated in the evacuation of 600 school-age children from Britain to Canada. Through the war, the British Ministry of Information engaged Ney to travel throughout England, Wales, Africa, the Middle East, Australia and New Zealand on a series of speaking tours to shore up popular support for Britain at home and abroad.
After the war, Ney devoted most of his energy to the Empire Youth Movement. It became the Commonwealth Youth Movement at the time of the coronation in 1953 as Ney bowed reluctantly (and somewhat belatedly) to the changing political terminology. In spite of his increasingly anachronistic view of the imperial relationship, Ney continued to have success raising funds from the Royal Commonwealth Society, Rhodes Trust, Massey Foundation, and other supporters. The centrepiece of the Commonwealth Youth Movement was its annual summer "quest" which took youth aged 16 to 20, specially chosen for their academic ability and leadership qualities to different parts of the world. Youth from all Commonwealth countries were eligible and it frequently included representatives from the United Kingdom, India, Pakistan, Malaysia, Africa and Canada. Destinations included Britain, Canada, Europe, Virginia, Gibraltar and Malta. Each quest consisted of a tour, a youth conference, and a memorial vigil. Ney organized and led the quests each year until 1969 when failing health (he was aged 84) forced him to delegate the responsibility to John N. Franklin. The last quest took place in 1970 and with the death of Ney in 1973 in Nanaimo, and the declining relevance of the British connection, the Commonwealth Youth Movement ceased to exist.
In 1923, Ney had married Mary Helen Aikins, the daughter of Sir James Aikins, Lieutenant-Governor of Manitoba from 1916 to 1926. The couple had one son, Michael F. A. J. Ney, who was killed in Kenya in 1954. F. J. Ney received the Gold Medal of the City of Paris in 1923, an honorary doctorate from the University of St. Andrew's in 1936, and was made an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1968 "for his contribution in the field of education and teacher exchanges with the Commonwealth and France, and as founder of the Commonwealth Youth Movement". He died in March 1973.
Sources: Frederick James Ney fonds; "Canadian Who's Who, 1937-1938"; James Sturgis and Margaret Bird, "Canada's Imperial Past: The Life of F. J. Ney" (Edinburgh 2000); and Freeman Stewart, "Interprovincial Co-operation in Education" (Toronto 1957).
