Applications open for Remembrance Day veteran’s banners in Ajax
Published April 19, 2024 at 6:22 pm
Ajax has opened the annual application process for families of veterans to honour their service with a commemorative banner on Remembrance Day.
The banners are a joint project between the town and the Royal Canadian Legion Branch 322. The Legion rolled out the banners a couple of years ago to highlight the name and image of those who served. The banners also include some biographical information such as which war they served in and when they fell in battle.
The program is in place across Canada including Ajax, Beaverton, Clarington, Oshawa and Port Perry. Ajax has become the most recent Durham Region community to join the program and is now accepting applications.
“This project is an ongoing legacy that pays tribute to all Canadian and Allied veterans and active service personnel as well as employees of the Defence Industries Limited in Ajax during the Second World War,” the Town described.
The banners will be displayed on light posts between Oct. 1 and Nov. 12 “as a means to pay tribute to our local veterans, deceased veterans, active service members and former employees of D.I.L.
“Through the display of the banners, we hope to engage the community in honouring and remembering veterans and D.I.L. employees through an initiative that will ensure continued recognition and respect throughout future generations,” they continued.
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Each banner can be sponsored for $150 all of which goes into the Legion coffers. Sponsors can apply for a banner online.
Ajax’s WWII History
Ajax has a strong military history due to the Second World War. It was initially established as the support centre for Defence Industries Ltd. and evolved into a town with no name early in the war.
At this point, there had been few Allied victories as the Nazi German war machine quickly rolled across Europe and the seas. Many of these Nazi naval victories were due to the Kriegsmarine Admiral Graf Spee which sank nine Allied merchant vessels off the coast of South America.
At this point in the war, the merchant marines were vitally important in moving munitions and supplies across the planet. As such, the Royal Navy sent HMS Ajax to hunt for the Graf Spee. It led a flotilla of several vessels to South American waters and encountered the Admiral off the coast of Montevideo, Uruguay.
Under the command of Admiral Henry Harwood, the flotilla managed to trap the Graf Spee off the River Plate and scuttled the vessel in December 1939. Though Adolf Hitler had ordered Graf Spee Captain Hans Langsdorff to fight to the last man, Langsdorff defied his orders and brought the ship into port in Montevideo.
There he sank the vessel into the port after evacuating his men. Langsdorff, a highly respected captain even among Allied forces, fatally shot himself in his hotel in Argentina shortly after the battle. Meanwhile, Harwood was acclaimed for his leadership in the battle and promoted.
Meanwhile, the community that had grown around the DIL Pickering Works plant still needed a name. The plant assistant safety director selected Ajax in honour of the Battle and it quickly caught on. However, the town didn’t get official municipal recognition until well after the war.
Meanwhile, in neighbouring Whitby, Sir William Stephenson, the man called Intrepid and a major inspiration for James Bond, founded Camp X to train spies.
When the plant shut down after the war, the University of Toronto operated a school for returning veterans on the site and the women’s residences were used to house refugees after their arrival in Canada. Ajax was formally granted town status in 1954.
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