The Founding of Ajax
Image courtesy of the Ajax Public Library - https://images.ourontario.ca/ajax/details.asp?ID=107708
Near the front door at the street entrance to the building
Commemoration
In 1941, the Canadian Government established here a shell-filling plant operated by Defence Industries Limited. At peak production, over 9,000 persons from across Canada lived and worked on this site. The community was named for H.M.S. Ajax, the British cruiser that, with H.M.S. Exeter and H.M.S. Achilles, defeated the German pocket battleship "Graf Spree" in December 1939 at the Battle of the River Plate. After the Second World War, Ajax became a temporary campus of the University of Toronto for thousands of returning veterans. Under the administration of Central Mortgage and Housing Corporation, the community grew and industries were attracted. It became an Improvement District in 1950, and an incorporated town in 1954.
Background
Defence Industries Limited was a subsidiary of C-I-L. They operated a number of munitions factories in Canada. During the war, 7,000 women worked at the plant in Ajax, which was the largest in the British Commonwealth.
The town itself was created out of the temporary housing that had been built for the workers at the plant. Like many “temporary” buildings built during that war, they became quite permanent.
The First and Second World Wars were instrumental in shifting Canada from a wholly agricultural economy to a more modern manufacturing base. This not only changed the way people worked but also how and where they lived.