Experimental Station Suffield

Coordinates: 50°16′16.83″N 111°10′23.39″W / 50.2713417°N 111.1731639°W / 50.2713417; -111.1731639 The military research facility located 5 km (3.1 mi) north of Suffield, Alberta, operated under the name of the Experimental Station Suffield (or the Field Experimental Station) from its inception into 1941 to its renaming to the Suffield Experimental Station in 1950.

History

When France fell to the Axis Powers in 1940, the British lost access to the joint British/French experimental station located in the Sahara at Beni Ounif, two hundred miles south of Oran. Following the lost of the Algerian experimental station, the Canadian Government indicated that it was willing to provide an alternative location. In October 1940, the Superintendent of Experiments at Porton Down, England, Mr. E. Ll. Davies, arrived in Canada to discuss the issue with Lt. Colonel Morrison and Dr. Otto Maass. Of the sites considered; Tracadie NB, Northern Quebec, Northern Ontario, Brandon, Manitoba, and Maple Creek, Saskatchewan; Suffield, Alberta was selected.[1] The area, which was given the name the Suffield Block, contained one hundred and twenty-five farms plus additional lands that were mostly owned by the Canadian Pacific Railway and the Hudson's Bay Company. A small nucleus of British scientists arrived at the experimental station in the spring of 1941.[2]

The Experimental Station Suffield, under the administration of the Canadian Army, commenced operations on June 11, 1941 as a joint British/Canadian biological and chemical defence facility. The name appears on several reports from the period and was most likely following a British naming convention. By the end of the Second World War, the station employed 584 personnel[3] trained in chemistry, physics, meteorology, mathematics, pharmacology, pathology, bacteriology, physiology, entomology, veterinary science, mechanical and chemical engineering. In 1946, the station was placed completely in the hands the Canadian Army when the British withdrew their support. The responsibility for administrating the station, including the Suffield Block, was transferred to the Defence Research Board[4][5] on April 30, 1947 by Order in Council PC 101/1727. In August 1950, the station was renamed to the Suffield Experimental Station (SES).

Chief Superintendent Tenure
E.Ll. Davies 1941 to 1947

A note on the Defence Research Board:[2] Based on the recommendations of Dr. Solandt, Director General of Defence Research, an Order in Council was signed on October 17, 1946, that created the Interim Defence Research Board. The four interim board members were Dr. C.H. Best, Dr. Otto Maass, Dr. P.E. Gagnon, and Colonel R.D. Harkness with Dr. Solandt as the chairman. The first meeting was held on December 16, 1946. On March 28, 1947, Bill 19, which amended the National Defence Act of 1927, became law and legally established the Defence Research Board.

A note on the joint British/Australian "Australian Field Experimental Station (AFES)":[6][7] AFES was constructed at Gunyarra, a railway siding about 12 miles south of Proserpine, Queensland in 1944. AFES was established to continue the research and experimental work carried out by the Australian Chemical Warfare Research and Experimental Section (A.C.W.R. & E.S.) at Innisfail, Queensland in 1943/44. Activities at this Station continued until the end of the war. For some time it was placed in a care and maintenance situation but was finally dismantled.

References

  1. ↑ D.H. Avery, The Science of War - Canadian Scientists and Allied Military Technology During the Second World War, University of Toronto Press, 1998
  2. 1 2 D.J. Goodspeed, A History of the Defence Research Board of Canada, 1 Jan 1958
  3. ↑ Dinosaurs to Defence - A Story of the Suffield Block
  4. ↑ Dr. O.M. Solandt, The Defence Research Board, The First Four Years: An Address to the Staff of the Defence Research Board in Ottawa Marking the Occasion of the Board's Fourth Birthday, 30 March 1951
  5. ↑ Dr. O.M. Solandt, Defence Research in Canada, 11 May 1951
  6. ↑ G. Plunkett, Chemical Warfare in Australia - Australia's Involvement in Chemical Warfare 1914 - 1945, Australian Military History Publications
  7. ↑ B. Goodwin, Keen as mustard, Univ. of Queensland Press, 1998
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