CFB Cornwallis

The rapid expansion of the Royal Canadian Navy during the early years of the Second World War saw many port facilities on the east coast of Canada become quickly taxed by operational requirements, particularly during the Battle of the Atlantic.

In early 1942, the Department of National Defence (DND) began examining the possibility of transferring naval recruit training to a new facility in southwestern Nova Scotia with convenient access to Halifax.

DND preferred the South Shore port town of Shelburne with its large natural harbour and deepwater port under development since fall 1941 at HMCS Shelburne (and an adjacent seaplane patrol base opened in spring 1942 at RCAF Station Shelburne), however it is presumed that political pressure from J.L. Illsley, the federal Minister of Finance and MP for Digby—Annapolis—Kings forced DND to reconsider. A location in Ilsley's riding on the shallower but more protected Annapolis Basin straddling the western border of Clementsport and eastern border of Deep Brook was quickly adopted.

While the location for the training base was being sorted out, the actual training establishment was founded at a cost of $9 million at Halifax's HMC Dockyard on May 1, 1942, and was named HMCS Cornwallis in honour of Edward Cornwallis, the founder of Halifax.

Edward Cornwallis by Sir Joshua Reynolds (1756)

With the location of the new base decided, construction began in June of that year with a budget of $15 million. The base occupied a small peninsula jutting into the Annapolis Basin several miles east of the mouth of the Bear River where a gypsum loading facility was located in Deep Brook. The property was relatively level and bisected by the mainline of the Dominion Atlantic Railway running from Yarmouth to Windsor Junction where it connected with CNR to Halifax and the rest of Canada.

New buildings were completed during the winter of 1942-1943 and the training establishment officially moved to the new base from HMC Dockyard on April 14, 1943, the date when HMCS Cornwallis was commissioned. the English-born architect Cecil Burgess designed 80 of the buildings constructed between 1942 and 1944.^[1] A booklet published ca. 1944 illustrates various aspects of wartime training at HMCS Cornwallis.^[2]

The RCN had a tremendous economic impact on the communities in western Annapolis County and eastern Digby County, with training personnel and recruits (when not in basic training) traveling around the local area. Approximately 2,500 personnel initially transferred with the training establishment from Halifax. The base would quickly grow to a peak strength of over 11,000 officers and enlisted personnel and recruits for the duration of the conflict, becoming the largest naval training facility for new recruits in the British Commonwealth in terms of the number of personnel being trained.

The Dominion Atlantic Railway operated special troop trains to the base's station and also relied on scheduled passenger service, connecting with Canadian Pacific Railway passenger trains from Saint John, New Brunswick (recruits would then take a CPR passenger ferry across the Bay of Fundy to nearby Digby) as well as Canadian National Railways passenger trains at Truro and Halifax.

HMCS Cornwallis extended from the small level peninsula on the Annapolis Basin south up the hillside overlooking the basin, providing suitable room for exercise and marches. A large firing range property was also developed immediately north of the Annapolis River at Granville Ferry, opposite the town of Annapolis Royal.

New recruits being trained as sailors for service in the RCN endured boot camp at HMCS Cornwallis, followed by specific naval training, including seamanship, boat handling, drill, self-defence, ropework, and weapons training. The duration of courses typically varied from 6–8 weeks, however the urgency of war sometimes shortened this period. Very few courses would receive sea training prior to active duty, although several RCN vessels were stationed at Cornwallis at various times for Anti-submarine warfare (ASW) training. These included Town-class destroyer HMCS Annapolis; Bangor-class minesweeper HMCS Quinte; armed yachts HMCS Sans Peur, HMCS Husky, and HMCS Vison. The auxiliary warship HMCS Acadia was also assigned to the base as a training vessel in 1944. Many newly commissioned RCN ships would have as few as a half-dozen experienced sailors on board for the maiden voyage, the bulk being raw recruits from HMCS Cornwallis.

Recruit training slowed and was halted at HMCS Cornwallis during the spring and summer of 1945 and following the end of World War II, the base was transformed into an opposite role, as a discharge centre for sailors where it assisted in processing thousands of naval personnel transitioning to civilian life. Following this spate of activity in the summer and fall of 1945, the base fell dormant and was declared surplus to the RCN on February 28, 1946, and turned over to the War Assets Corporation for disposal.

The disposal of HMCS Cornwallis was a slow process, given the sheer number of military properties across the nation that were undergoing a similar fate. During this period that the base lay dormant, the post office gave it the new name of Cornwallis, Nova Scotia for a postal outlet.

The WRENS started training for the RCN at HMCS Cornwallis in 1951. Doreen Nettie Patterson (1927–2000) was one of the recruits.

However the re-emergence of a military threat in the form of the Soviet Union saw the RCN reconsider using the base once again. The creation of NATO in 1948 was an impetus for the issuance of a "stop sale" order in June of that year and in September the navy reclaimed possession. Following renovations later that fall, the base was recommissioned as the RCN's training base HMCS Cornwallis on May 1, 1949. It was envisioned that the new HMCS Cornwallis would be ramped up to have a maximum of 800 recruits at any one time.

Despite the Cold War, the RCN was operating as a peacetime navy, so its first recruits through HMCS Cornwallis endured a 5-month new entry course. Canada's participation in the Korean War quickened the training pace, with the navy being mobilized for action in the Pacific Ocean. By the spring of 1951, recruit levels at HMCS Cornwallis were at 1,600, double the estimated intake that the reactivated facility was designed for.

Recruits with the Women's Royal Canadian Naval Service (WRCNS - Known as and referred to as "Wrens") started training at HMCS Cornwallis for the RCN on October 2, 1951. That month also saw the transfer to HMCS Cornwallis of the Communication Division of the Fleet School at HMC Dockyard in Halifax. This unit trained seamen and wrens in the communication trade (morse code and radio), while advanced courses were offered for officers and petty officers.

Officer cadets from the University Naval Training Divisions also trained in the summer at HMCS Cornwallis before Royal Roads Military College took over all officer training for the RCN.

Following the Korean War and through the remainder of the 1950s-1960s, HMCS Cornwallis functioned as the new recruit training centre for sailors entering the Royal Canadian Navy, with very little additional training for other ranks.

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Royal Canadian Navy

Royal Canadian Navy

The Royal Canadian Navy is the naval force of Canada. The RCN is one of three environmental commands within the Canadian Armed Forces. As of 2021, the RCN operates 12 frigates, four attack submarines, 12 coastal defence vessels, eight patrol class training vessels, two offshore patrol vessels, and several auxiliary vessels. The RCN consists of 8,570 Regular Force and 4,111 Primary Reserve sailors, supported by 3,800 civilians. Vice-Admiral Angus Topshee is the current commander of the Royal Canadian Navy and chief of the Naval Staff.

Battle of the Atlantic

Battle of the Atlantic

The Battle of the Atlantic, the longest continuous military campaign in World War II, ran from 1939 to the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945, covering a major part of the naval history of World War II. At its core was the Allied naval blockade of Germany, announced the day after the declaration of war, and Germany's subsequent counter-blockade. The campaign peaked from mid-1940 through to the end of 1943.

Department of National Defence (Canada)

Department of National Defence (Canada)

The Department of National Defence is the department of the Government of Canada which supports the Canadian Armed Forces in its role of defending Canadian national interests domestically and internationally. The department is a civilian organization, part of the public service, and supports the armed forces; however, as a civilian organization is separate and not part of the military itself. National Defence is the largest department of the Government of Canada in terms of budget, and it is the department with the largest number of buildings.

James Lorimer Ilsley

James Lorimer Ilsley

James Lorimer Ilsley, was a Canadian politician and jurist.

Minister of Finance (Canada)

Minister of Finance (Canada)

The minister of finance is the minister of the Crown in the Canadian Cabinet who is responsible for overseeing the Department of Finance and presenting the federal government's budget each year. It is one of the most important positions in the Cabinet.

House of Commons of Canada

House of Commons of Canada

The House of Commons of Canada is the lower house of the Parliament of Canada. Together with the Crown and the Senate of Canada, they comprise the bicameral legislature of Canada.

Digby—Annapolis—Kings

Digby—Annapolis—Kings

Digby—Annapolis—Kings was a federal electoral district in the province of Nova Scotia, Canada, that was represented in the House of Commons of Canada from 1935 to 1949, and from 1953 to 1968.

Annapolis Basin

Annapolis Basin

The Annapolis Basin is a sub-basin of the Bay of Fundy, located on the bay's southeastern shores, along the northwestern shore of Nova Scotia and at the western end of the Annapolis Valley.

Deep Brook, Nova Scotia

Deep Brook, Nova Scotia

Deep Brook is a community in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, located in Annapolis County. It is situated on the south shore of the Annapolis Basin and is on Nova Scotia Trunk 1.

CFB Halifax

CFB Halifax

Canadian Forces Base (CFB) Halifax is Canada's east coast naval base and home port to the Royal Canadian Navy Atlantic fleet, known as Canadian Fleet Atlantic (CANFLTLANT), that forms part of the formation Maritime Forces Atlantic (MARLANT).

Edward Cornwallis

Edward Cornwallis

Edward Cornwallis was a British career military officer and was a member of the aristocratic Cornwallis family, who reached the rank of Lieutenant General. After Cornwallis fought in Scotland, putting down the Jacobite rebellion of 1745, he was appointed Groom of the Chamber for King George II. He was then made Governor of Nova Scotia (1749–1752), one of the colonies in North America, and assigned to establish the new town of Halifax, Nova Scotia. Later Cornwallis returned to London, where he was elected as MP for Westminster and married the niece of Robert Walpole, Great Britain's first Prime Minister. Cornwallis was next appointed as Governor of Gibraltar.

Joshua Reynolds

Joshua Reynolds

Sir Joshua Reynolds was an English painter who specialised in portraits. John Russell said he was one of the major European painters of the 18th century. He promoted the "Grand Style" in painting which depended on idealisation of the imperfect. He was a founder and first president of the Royal Academy of Arts, and was knighted by George III in 1769.

The February 1, 1968 unification of the Royal Canadian Navy with the Royal Canadian Air Force and Canadian Army to form the Canadian Forces saw HMCS Cornwallis change its name to Canadian Forces Base Cornwallis, or CFB Cornwallis.

At the time of unification, many duplicate bases and facilities were being closed; however, it was determined that CFB Cornwallis would become home to the English-speaking division of the Canadian Forces Recruit School (CFRS) and would train recruits at the enlisted level destined for service with one of the three operational environments of the entire Canadian Forces (land, sea, or air). The French-speaking division of CFRS was located at CFB St-Jean.

CFB Cornwallis continued in this role through to its closure in 1994, when the base was identified as surplus to the requirements of the shrinking post-Cold War Canadian Forces. The last recruit course 9426 graduated on August 18 that year, and the base officially decommissioned in May 1995.

The closure of the base was not without controversy, as a series of memorial stained glass windows commemorating those lost in the Battle of the Atlantic were removed by the Canadian Forces from the base chapel and installed in a military chapel in CFB Halifax's Shannon Park housing development in Dartmouth.

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Royal Canadian Air Force

Royal Canadian Air Force

The Royal Canadian Air Force is the air and space force of Canada. Its role is to "provide the Canadian Forces with relevant, responsive and effective airpower". The RCAF is one of three environmental commands within the unified Canadian Armed Forces. As of 2020, the Royal Canadian Air Force consists of 12,074 Regular Force and 1,969 Primary Reserve personnel, supported by 1,518 civilians, and operates 258 manned aircraft and nine unmanned aerial vehicles. Lieutenant-General Eric Kenny is the current commander of the Royal Canadian Air Force and chief of the Air Force Staff.

Canadian Army

Canadian Army

The Canadian Army is the command responsible for the operational readiness of the conventional ground forces of the Canadian Armed Forces. It maintains regular forces units at bases across Canada, and is also responsible for the Army Reserve, the largest component of the Primary Reserve. The Army is headed by the concurrently held Commander of the Canadian Army and Chief of the Army Staff, who is subordinate to the Chief of the Defence Staff. The Army is also supported by 3,000 civilian employees from the civil service.

Cold War

Cold War

The Cold War was a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term cold war is used because there was no large-scale fighting directly between the two superpowers, but they each supported opposing sides in major regional conflicts known as proxy wars. The conflict was based on the ideological and geopolitical struggle for global influence by these two superpowers, following their temporary alliance and victory against Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan in 1945. Aside from the nuclear arsenal development and conventional military deployment, the struggle for dominance was expressed via indirect means such as psychological warfare, propaganda campaigns, espionage, far-reaching embargoes, rivalry at sports events, and technological competitions such as the Space Race.

Stained glass

Stained glass

Stained glass is coloured glass as a material or works created from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant religious buildings. Although traditionally made in flat panels and used as windows, the creations of modern stained glass artists also include three-dimensional structures and sculpture. Modern vernacular usage has often extended the term "stained glass" to include domestic lead light and objets d'art created from foil glasswork exemplified in the famous lamps of Louis Comfort Tiffany.

Battle of the Atlantic

Battle of the Atlantic

The Battle of the Atlantic, the longest continuous military campaign in World War II, ran from 1939 to the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945, covering a major part of the naval history of World War II. At its core was the Allied naval blockade of Germany, announced the day after the declaration of war, and Germany's subsequent counter-blockade. The campaign peaked from mid-1940 through to the end of 1943.

CFB Halifax

CFB Halifax

Canadian Forces Base (CFB) Halifax is Canada's east coast naval base and home port to the Royal Canadian Navy Atlantic fleet, known as Canadian Fleet Atlantic (CANFLTLANT), that forms part of the formation Maritime Forces Atlantic (MARLANT).

Shannon Park, Nova Scotia

Shannon Park, Nova Scotia

Shannon Park is an urban neighbourhood and former national defence site in the north end of Dartmouth on the eastern shore of Halifax Harbour in the Halifax Regional Municipality (HRM) in Nova Scotia, Canada. It is immediately south of the A. Murray MacKay Bridge in the community of Dartmouth. It straddles Highway 111, a CN Rail freight line, and Halifax Harbour. It is bordered on the south by Tuft's Cove.

Dartmouth, Nova Scotia

Dartmouth, Nova Scotia

Dartmouth is an urban community and former city located in the Halifax Regional Municipality of Nova Scotia, Canada. Dartmouth is located on the eastern shore of Halifax Harbour. Dartmouth has been nicknamed the City of Lakes, after the large number of lakes located within its boundaries.

Welcome sign

Following decommissioning, the Government of Canada transferred the base property to the Government of Nova Scotia which in turn transferred it to a local development authority named Cornwallis Park Development Authority; the base property being marketed for civilian use as Cornwallis Park. The residences and permanent married quarters (PMQs) on the hill overlooking the Annapolis Basin were sold or rented to civilians, with the community being marketed as ideal for seniors and retirees with a "million dollar view." Since 2000, the provincial government has officially recognized the community for civic addressing purposes as being Cornwallis Park.

U.S. Defence Secretary Robert M. Gates walks with Australian Minister of Defence Joel Fitzgibbon and Estonia's Defence Minister Jaak Aaviksoo after a meeting at Cornwallis Park in 2008.

Other parts of the base were transformed into an industrial park with some companies being established as call centres, and others processing recycled tires, or lumber and forest products.

A small military presence remains at the base in the historic buildings fronting the old parade square with The CSTC HMCS Acadia sea cadet training centre operates in some of the barracks at Cornwallis Park during the summer months, training thousands of Royal Canadian Sea Cadets from across Atlantic Canada.

In 2008, the park hosted a meeting of the International Security Assistance Force's (ISAF) Regional Command South (RC-South), comprising forces from Canada, Australia, Denmark, Estonia, Netherlands, Romania, United Kingdom, and the United States.

The Pearson Peacekeeping Centre formerly occupied space at Cornwallis. It was established in 1994 to train Canadian and foreign soldiers in the art of peacekeeping and conflict resolution for postings with United Nations Peacekeeping missions. In late 2011, the Centre closed its Cornwallis Park office, ending a 17-year presence.^[3]

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Government of Canada

Government of Canada

The government of Canada is the body responsible for the federal administration of Canada. A constitutional monarchy, the Crown assumes distinct roles: the executive, as the Crown-in-Council; the legislative, as the Crown-in-Parliament; and the judicial, as the Crown-on-the-Bench. Three institutions—the Privy Council, the Parliament, and the judiciary, respectively—exercise the powers of the Crown.

Government of Nova Scotia

Government of Nova Scotia

The Government of Nova Scotia refers to the provincial government of the Canadian province of Nova Scotia. Nova Scotia is one of Canada's four Atlantic Provinces, and the second-smallest province by area. The capital of the province, Halifax, is Nova Scotia's largest city and its political capital. Halifax is where the Province House, Canada's oldest legislative building, is located.

CSTC HMCS Acadia

CSTC HMCS Acadia

HMCS Acadia Cadet Training Centre is a Royal Canadian Sea Cadets training centre in Cornwallis Park, Nova Scotia. The centre takes its name from the ship HMCS Acadia, a hydrographic research ship which was commissioned into the navy in both World War I and World War II and based at the end of its naval career at the Cornwallis base as a training ship. In November 1945, HMCS Acadia was decommissioned from Royal Canadian Navy service and the vessel returned to civilian operations with the Canadian Hydrographic Service as CSS Acadia. The name and unit colours of HMCS Acadia were revived in 1956 by the RCN when a new Royal Canadian Sea Cadets summer training centre was established at the naval base HMCS Protector on Cape Breton Island. It was called HMCS Acadia.

Atlantic Canada

Atlantic Canada

Atlantic Canada, also called the Atlantic provinces, is the region of Eastern Canada comprising the provinces located on the Atlantic coast, excluding Quebec. The four provinces are New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island. As of 2021, the landmass of the four Atlantic provinces was approximately 488,000 km2, and had a population of over 2.4 million people. The provinces combined had an approximate GDP of $121.888 billion in 2011. The term Atlantic Canada was popularized following the admission of Newfoundland as a Canadian province in 1949.