General Engineering Company (Canada) munitions factory

The General Engineering Company of Ontario (GECO, pronounced: "Gee-ko") was a munitions plant located in Scarborough, Toronto, and owned by the Government of Canada.[1] Between July 1941 to July 1945, GECO filled more than 256 million units of ammunition for the Government of Canada.[1][2]: 243  GECO is named after its builder and operator, General Engineering Company (Canada) Limited.[2]: 18, 242–243  The Scarborough GECO munitions plant was also known as "Project No. 24", and "Scarboro".[2]: 18  It spanned 172 buildings.[1] Following the Second World War, some of the buildings were used for emergency housing.[3]

History

Display of artillery and ammunition produced by the General Engineering Company (Canada)

In 1940, the Allied War Supplies Corporation (AWSC) contracted General Engineering Company (Canada) Limited to build a fuse filling plant (Project No. 24).[2]: 18  The 172 buildings included a bank, a guardhouse, a medical centre, a cafeteria, changing houses, a chemical lab, a power plant, carpentry shops, and more.[2]: 42, 202, 217  The munitions plant was divided into the 'clean' and 'dirty' side, dividing the area used for handling explosives from that of the safe area.[2]: 41  GECO spanned 345 acres of land.[2]: 51 [1] The construction of the munitions plant cost over $7 million which was more than the initial estimate of $2.25 million.[2]: 51 

The GECO plant was overseen by Robert Mclean Prior Hamilton (GECO's president) and his brother Philip Dawson Prior Hamilton (Vice-President of GECO).[2]: 20 

Operators traying based bullets for tip lacquering

A large percentage of GECO employees during World War II were women. Later on during the war most of the employees were women.[2]: 66 [4] The GECO employees who worked with ammunition earned the nicknames "Bomb Girl", "Munitionette", "Fusilier", and "Munitions Gal".[2]: 66  Often the tetryl powder that they worked with resulted in yellowed hair and hands.[2]: 170  This made it easy to spot who worked at GECO. The cotton uniforms the employees wore was specially designed to reduce static and protect skin from the dust from tetryl powder that could cause rashes.[2]: 74  Part of the uniform was a turban or head covering worn to cover the head to prevent accidents with machinery.[2]: 74  When crossing from the 'dirty to the 'clean' side of the factory, the employees were inspected for any prohibited items[5] such as metal or matches.[2]: 71  The employees on the 'dirty' side were also not allowed to wear anything with metal because of the risk of an explosion.[2]: 70 

Workers at GECO had the option of joining the GECO Recreation Club, using the laundry services, the daycare services and gardening in the Victory Gardens.[2]: 187–188, 212, 215, 217  GECO published an employee magazine called the GECO Fusilier.[2]: 208  GECO employees were also encouraged to participate in Miss War Worker that was sponsored by the Toronto Police Amateur Athletic Association.[2]: 213  GECO hosted its own pin-up contest in 1943.[2]: 215 

Cover of the GECO Fusilier Magazine that shows a cartoon by Lou Skuce on the cover which compares a women's contribution in a munition factory to that of a soldier.
GECO Fusilier Magazine Vol. 1 No. 2

Visitors to the GECO munitions factory included: Mary Pickford, Alexander Cambridge, 1st Earl of Athlone, and Andrew McNaughton.[2]: 227–228 

After World War II, between 1945-1954, some of the GECO buildings were used for emergency housing.[6] Twenty of the GECO buildings are still visible in Scarborough.[7] The site where GECO used to be was bought by the township of Scarborough in 1948 and now is part of the Golden Mile. GECo Park in a new subdivision in the area is named in honour of the company.[8]

Bomb Girls (2012-2013), a Canadian television drama, was based on accounts of workers from the DIL Ajax and the GECO plants.[9]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Dickson, Barbara. "Bomb Girls: Trading Aprons for Ammo". Barbara Dickson.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 Dickson, Barbara (2015). Bomb Girls:Trading Aprons for Ammo. Toronto: Dundurn Press Limited. ISBN 9781459731165.
  3. ↑ "WWII GECO Women Scarborough". Heritage Toronto.
  4. ↑ Black, Alex (August 2018). "Bomb Girls with Barbara Dickson". Juno Beach and Beyond. Juno Beach Centre.
  5. ↑ Collins, Robert. "When mother was a war worker". Maclean's.
  6. ↑ McMurtry, Alice. "The history of the Scarborough munitions plant where women made bombs during WW2". BlogTO. Retrieved 5 April 2021.
  7. ↑ Dickson, Barbara. "GECO Today". Barbara Dickson.
  8. ↑ General Manager, Parks, Forestry and Recreation (28 May 2019). "Proposed Official Naming of Future Park on Cleanside Road, Scarborough" (PDF). City of Toronto. Retrieved 31 January 2022.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  9. ↑ Tubb, Lisa (2019). "Assembling Victory: Defense Industries Limited, Ajax, 1941-1945". Ontario History. The Ontario Historical Society. 111 (1): 17. doi:10.7202/1059963ar.

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