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A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF AJAX 1941 to 1979 - Forty Years of Progress and Change On September 10, 1939, Canada declared war on Germany and Italy. On that day, the present site of the Town of Ajax was a peaceful rolling farmland nestled on the edge of Lake Ontario in Pickering Township. All this was to change very quickly. In 1941, this farmland became the site of Defence Industries Limited (D.I.L.), Pickering Works. Thus began a vast shell filling plant which before 1945 had filled 40,000 shells; employed over 9000 people at peak production; boasted of its own water and sewage treatment plants; had a school population of over 600; had 30 miles of railroad and 30 miles of roads. The entire D.I.L. plant site included some 2985 acres. 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 a distant British naval victory. From December 13 to December 19, 1939, a flotilla of British warships - H.M.S. Ajax, H.M.S. Exeter, and H.M.S. Achilles — commanded by Commodore Henry H. Harwood engaged and routed the powerful German Pocket Battleship, Graf Spee at the Battle of the River Plate. The name Ajax and the names of her sister ships became world wide symbols of courage and determination. Ajax was chosen, therefore, as the name of this war born community. In 1945, World War II ended. But not Ajax. As the young veterans returned home, accommodation was required for thousands of additional University students. Consequently, the University of Toronto leased much of the D.I.L. plant to house the new flood of engineering students. War