Ajax History

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History

Before the Second World War, the territory in which Ajax is situated was a rural part of the Township of Pickering. The town itself was first established in 1941 when a Defence Industries Limited shell plant was constructed and a townsite grew around the plant. By 1945 the plant had filled 40 million shells; employed over 9000 people at peak production; boasted of its own water and sewage treatment plants; a school population of over 600; 50 km (31 mi) of railroad and 50 km (31 mi) of roads. The entire D.I.L. plant site included some 12 km² (5 sq mi). People came from all over Canada to work at D.I.L.

This enormous burgeoning war plant community needed a name. The name was supplied by the first significant British naval victory of World War II. From December 13 to December 19, 1939, a flotilla of British warships - HMS Ajax, HMS Exeter and HMS Achilles — commanded by Commodore Henry Harwood — engaged and routed the powerful German pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee at the Battle of the River Plate, near the Uruguayan port of Montevideo in South America. Ajax was chosen as the name of this war-born community.

After the War ended, the University of Toronto leased much of the D.I.L. plant to house the flood of newly discharged men from the Armed Forces who had enrolled as engineering students. War machines were moved out and the buildings were converted to classrooms and laboratories. By 1949, the last year of the University of Toronto, Ajax Division, some 7000 engineering students had received their basic training here.