The Scarborough Historical Society thanks all our members for their support
throughout the year. We look forward to the Tuesday night programmes and other
community events that give us a chance to meet with our members.  If you have not
renewed your membership for the coming year please do so soon. Donations to the
society are always appreciated.

We wish you all a Merry Christmas, a Happy New Year, and plenty of good times with family and friends during the holiday season.

Hope to see you at our next programme in January.

Our November 24^th programme was also the date of our annual general meeting. Don Allen, S.H.S. President, welcomed everyone to the meeting and all the committees presented their annual reports. The Programme Committee has been responsible for putting together more than 300 programmes over the years and our current programme committee was introduced and recognized for their work. The top photo shows Jan Howe (committee chair) and the programme committee.

Our guest speaker for the evening was P.C. Richard Baker, a Community Service Officer with the Toronto Harbour Police. He spoke about the Toronto Police Services Marine Unit. It was named the Toronto Life Saving & Police Patrol Service in 1920 but had operated under other names since 1850. Their first lifesaving boat was purchased in 1857. Capt. W. Ward Sr. set up an Aux. Police Unit for lifesaving in 1880. In 1921 the Toronto Life Saving & Police Patrol Service came to be operated by the Toronto Harbour Commission at the expense of the City of Toronto. They were in service at the Noronic fire in 1949 and made 28 rescues during Hurricane Hazel.

Currently known as the Toronto Police Marine Unit they have a fulltime staff of 57. They operate out of 4 locations in the Toronto Harbour from the Humber River to Bluffers Park. Every spring they hire 93 seasonal personnel for the Toronto Police Lifeguard Service. This Service provides beach lifeguards, and rescue personnel on the thirteen beaches stretching along Toronto’s shoreline.

Among its many responsibilities the Marine unit also operates an Underwater Search and Recovery Team, it provides support to the Billy Bishop Island Airport, and works with enforcement agencies that include US Department of Homelands Securities, Canada Border Services, RCMP, and the OPP.

The Scarborough Historical Society hosts programmes on the 4th Tuesday of each month from January to April and from September to November. All programmes begin at 7:30 p.m. at the Bendale Public Library and are free and open to the public.

Barbara Dickson was the guest speaker at our October 27th programme. She is the author of “Bomb Girls: Trading Aprons for Ammo”. Her book is an insight into the day to day life about working at GECO (General Engineering Company (Canada) Limited), the World War II munitions plant in Scarborough. She has included many photos and in-person interviews with former workers at the plant and it was interesting to hear that Mary Pickford made a visit to the site.
172 buildings were erected in 3 months in 1941 and turned the area into a “mini-city” that included a hospital, 2 fire halls, a bank, and the fuse-filling sheds. It was the largest fuse-filling plant in Canada and between the years 1941 and 1945 a total of 21,000 workers (mostly women) filled 256 million munitions. Many of the members who attended the programme had personal connections to the workers at GECO and enjoyed the presentation.

The Scarborough Historical Society hosts programmes on the 4th Tuesday of each month from January to April and from September to November. All programmes begin at 7:30 p.m. at the Bendale Public Library and are free and open to the public.

The Scarborough Historical Society’s own Scott Woodland did a wonderful job at our September 22nd, Bendale programme, filling in for our scheduled speaker who was taken ill at the last minute. Scott’s programme told the story of his great grandfather’s time in the military during the great war. The interesting talk was accompanied by photos from the woodland family album and several WWI artifacts.

Our next programme, “The Girls Behind the Guns” will take place October 27th, 2015 at 7:30 pm. Hope to see you there!