Defence Industries Limited (DIL) Pickering Works was a munitions plant owned by the Government of Canada and operated by DIL during 1941–1945, in the Pickering Township of Ontario. The unincorporated community that developed around the plant was named Ajax in honour of the British warship Ajax, and evolved into the town of Ajax, Ontario.
At its peak, the plant had 9000 workers (the majority of them women), and produced over 40 million rounds of shells. The plant premises and the surrounding area had several town-like facilities such as residences for DIL employees, a post office, a fire department, a hotel, recreation centres, a grocery store, a school, a church, and local transit.
Selection of site
On 10 September 1939, Canada entered World War II, declaring war on Germany. Because of its distance from the war theatre in Europe, Canada was an ideal location for producing munitions for the Allied forces. The Government of Canada planned to build the largest shell-filling and assembly plant in the British Commonwealth. For this purpose, the government chose a 2,846-acre site in Pickering Township, in what is now the town of Ajax, Ontario. The site was bordered by Duffins Creek in the west, Pickering Beach Road in the east, just north of Highway 401 in the north, and Lake Ontario in the south.
Several factors made this site desirable for building the plant. It comprised leveled farmland that was suitable for expropriation, and ideal for quick construction of the plant buildings. It was close enough to major population centers to ensure a steady supply of workers, but far enough from them to ensure safety and security. It was accessible by road from Highway 2 and Highway 401 (which was in early stages of development), by railway lines, by water from Lake Ontario, and by air from nearby airports. The production lines at the proposed plant had to be separated by considerable distance to avoid accidental explosions at one line affecting the other. The chosen site was large enough to meet this requirement. The proposed plant required a sewage treatment facility and a daily supply of 1 million gallons of water, which was met by Lake Ontario.
The government expropriated land from 18 farm families, including those of Lorne Puckrin, Wilmot Shea, Heber Down, William Heron, Harry Arnold, R. J. Fleming, M. Boswell, William Linton, John Wilson, Lloyd Stanley, William Divine, Elmer Powell, and George Field. The government gave the farmers only a week to move, and offered them $125 an acre on average. Many farmers, whose families had owned the land for multiple generations, considered this compensation inadequate, and were unhappy with the expropriation.
Construction
In February 1940, army surveyors Robinson and Jim Brennan (who later settled in Ajax) arrived to survey the expropriated land. They reached the site using a trail that later became the Cheese Factory Road (now Ritchie Road). To avoid delays, the Government did not issue an invitation to tender, and directly selected the firm of Carter-Halls-Aldinger as the general contractor. By the end of February, the contractors had erected their single-storey frame office buildings, just north of the present-day Ajax Town Hall. Meanwhile, the survey crews started marking the locations for the planned buildings, roadways, and a seven-spur railway line.
Wartime Defense Limited started the construction of a shell-filling plant and associated buildings on the land. Around 2000 carpenters and helpers were involved in the construction. The spring rains made the former farmland muddy, causing the heavy construction equipment to get stuck in the ground. The Government hired the local farmers (including the ones whose lands had been expropriated) to haul lumber. Several farmers bought their own tools and became carpenters on the project.
Backed by federal funds, the construction progressed at a rapid place. For example, the 50,000 square feet storage building No. 2152 was erected and ready for use 24 hours after the foundations were completed. Most of the buildings were frame buildings with corrugated metal roofs, while a few were made of bricks or poured reinforced concrete.
Operation
Defence Industries Limited (DIL), a subsidiary of Canadian Industries Limited, operated the plant. CIL had extensive experience in manufacturing and handling explosives for ammunition. The plant was officially a Crown corporation, but practically functioned as a division of CIL.
By the end of 1941, the major plant buildings were ready. The electrical, water and sewer lines were operational. The large central steam plant, which delivered steam to other buildings, was operational as well.
The quality of the Lake Ontario water was good enough for daily use at the time, but DIL still treated the water, removing sediment and chlorinating it. The water was then pumped to the steam plant. A 25,000 gallon steel water tank was mounted 110 feet high to ensure constant supply and reliable pressure.
A sewage treatment plant was built on the Duffins Creek to treat the sewage before it was dumped into the Lake.
DIL had its own transportation department to handle buses, staff cars, and three light railway engines. The DIL railroad required at least 25 employees to operate. The Canadian National Railway installed 30 miles of railway track at DIL, and the major buildings had their own spur lines. The five largest buildings were warehouses with railway lines running through them. They were large enough to accommodate a locomotive and several boxcars, and had massive double doors to allow the trains to enter. Explosive materials used in production arrived at DIL by train. The goods produced at DIL reached the port cities of Montreal and Halifax by train.
The plant was secured like an army camp: an 8-foot fence topped with barbed wire and bright lights surrounding it. Guard huts existed every 300 feet, and were connected to the Chief Security Officer's desk and each other by telephone. In addition, guards also patrolled a gravel road running parallel to the outer parameter of the DIL12 premises. Only DIL employees with a valid ID badge were allowed on the premises, and they were allowed to be in the production area only during their scheduled shifts. They were subject to random searches, and prohibited from smoking on or near the premises. Spies trained at the Camp X were rumoured to have broken into the DIL plant to test security measures.
The name "Ajax"
The plant was originally known as "Defence Industries Limited - Pickering Works", and the sign on the Canadian National Railway (CN) line identified its location as "DILCO".
The Pickering Village post office initially served the plant, but the increase in mail volume soon strained its capacity. Therefore, in 1941, DIL decided to establish its own post office, which required an official name for the place. The workers did not like the existing names in use, "DILCO" (used by CN Rail) or "DIL-ville" (often used jokingly). Therefore, the management ran a naming contest, announcing it in the DIL newsletter The Commando.
Frank Holroyd, the plant's assistant safety director, suggested the winning name "Ajax". He chose the name in honour of the British warship Ajax which took part in the Battle of the River Plate of 1939. The ship was the eighth British warship to bear this name, which derives from the name of the Greek mythological hero Ajax. The other two ships that participated in the Battle - Achilles and Exeter - were later honoured in the street names of the town.
Throughout the 1940s, Ajax remained a part of the Pickering Township, and did not have any municipal status. However, the residents of the DIL premises and its surrounding area referred to their community as a "village", and DIL's newsletter The Commando mentioned "Ajax, Ontario" as the place of its publication.
Workers
DIL Ajax's first employee was Sydney Thomas Hopkins, an accountant from Oshawa, who was hired on 21 February 1941 as the Chief Construction Auditor for Carter-Halls-Aldinger. He later became the Chief Clerk of Works, responsible for a variety of tasks including general administration, traffic, stores, and work costs. He also served as the postmaster, representative for the Employees' Medical Plan, Commissioner of Oaths, and a member of the Citizens' Committee.
A week later, DIL hired Alex Russell, the former personnel director at General Motors, and tasked him with hiring and screening the plant personnel. At its peak, the DIL plant would require 9,000 workers to produce over 40 million rounds of shells. The government procured several thousand workers from the General Motors plant in nearby Oshawa. Some of the farmers who had helped with construction also joined the plant once it became operational. Male workers at DIL included several men who were highly educated in engineering or sciences, or were skilled tradesmen. In addition, DIL also hired several men who had been deemed medically unfit to serve in the armed forces. However, these workers were not sufficient to run the plant at its maximum potential. The government had difficulty finding male workers, as many men were serving as soldiers in the war, and several others were engaged in other war industries in the nearby cities like Toronto. Consequently, DIL started hiring women, many of whose husbands were fighting as soldiers in Europe. Women were said to be more suitable for shell-filling because of their "small hands, patience, and attention to detail for repetitive work".
DIL recruiters consulted the National Selection Service registry, which maintained lists of potential labour pools. By September 1940, the NSS registry had identified around 20,000 young, single women across Canada, who were available for immediate hiring in war-related industries. DIL contacted many of these women for its Pickering Works plant, promising them train fare, affordable lodgings and meals. DIL classified potential women workers into four categories, listed in order of most suitable to least suitable: single women and young girls for full-time work, childless married women without home responsibilities for full-time work, childless married women with home responsibilities for part-time work, and women with children for part-time work. Ultimately, unable to find enough workers, DIL offered jobs even to the women with children, who were considered least suitable. No such categorization was done for potential male candidates.
By the end of June 1941, the three all-woman shifts of the Cap & Det Line were producing caps and detonators, which were sent to Britain by air. Rapid construction continued, and eventually, six production lines became active.
The plant still lacked enough workers, and in late 1941, the government appealed the Canadian women to support the war effort. By the end of 1941, the major plant buildings were complete, and the government began national recruiting efforts in the summer of 1942. The DIL hiring teams called prospective women workers by telephone, and also visited places across Canada to hire women workers. Many women saw the job as an opportunity show their patriotism, to earn money, and to see another part of Canada. DIL arranged for the recruited women to travel to Toronto Union Station by train, and from there, to the Pickering Township by a bus. The government would pay for their return home only if they served at the plant for three months or more. The recruits had to undergo two medical examinations and two background checks (by RCMP and OPP).
The DIL work rooms and tasks were generally segregated by gender. The management generally assigned jobs requiring physical strength, inspection, or supervision to men. Men also did the most dangerous work involving explosives such as amatol and TNT. But, overall, the women vastly outnumbered men at the DIL plant, and by January 1942, the ratio of female to male workers had crossed 2:1.