"THE FOUNDING OF AJAX" ~ Ajax - Ontario Provincial Plaques on Waymarking.com

PLAQUE TEXT:
THE FOUNDING OF AJAX

In 1941, the Government of Canada established a shell-filling plant operated
by Defence Industries Limited on this site. During its peak production,
over 9,000 people from across the country lived and worked at the
operation. The company town consisted of 600 houses and support facilities,
and together with the factory, covered 2,846 acres (1,152 hectares) of land.
The community was named after the British ship HMS Ajax, which, with two
others, defeated the German battleship Admiral Graf Spee at the Battle of the
River Plate in 1939. After the Second World War, Ajax was the site of a
temporary campus for a division of the University of Toronto's Faculty of
Applied Sciences and Engineering, for thousands of returning veterans, until
1948. Under the administration of the Central Mortgage and Housing
Corporation, the community continued to grow and attract new industries.
Ajax was incorporated as a town in 1954.

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A Brief History:

The land which comprises the Town of Ajax was originally developed out of a need to construct a shell filling plant in support of the war effort. Defence Industries Limited (D.I.L.) would require nine thousand workers to produce more than forty million rounds of artillery shells throughout the war years. At the time, Ajax was the largest shell filling plant in the British Empire.

With so many new workers in the area, a new post office had to be set up in Ajax since the Pickering Village Post Office could not accommodate the volume. Before the Post Office could be opened, the new area had to be given a name. A contest was held and the name “Ajax” was chosen in honour of the significant British naval battle (Battle of the River Plate) where the HMS Ajax and two sister ships, the Exeter and the Achilles scuttled a German pocket battleship in the Bay of Montevideo. Most of the streets in Ajax are named in honour of the sailors aboard the Ajax.

Occasionally members of the crew of HMS Ajax or their families visit our Town to see the streets named after them. On such occasions a tree planting is done, and a plaque is placed at the foot of the tree. The visitor is presented with a street sign bearing his name.
Quote from: Town of Ajax info

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Address or location of plaque: 65 Harwood Avenue Rd. South Physical location of plaque: Town "Ontario Plaques" Website for this "Plaque": [Web Link] A web-site for more details.: [Web Link] Description of any physical remains at site of "Historical Plaque": The former munition site is now the Town of Ajax Municipal Building This 'Plaque' describes: A 'Location' Condition of sign: Brand new as of the fall of 2010 Is this a bilingual sign?: Yes ! What is the second/third language?: <font color=blue>French</font>

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Date Logged Log User Rating   12/22/2010 rebel10 visited it