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CFB Cornwallis
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CFB Cornwallis
Canadian Forces Base Cornwallis (also CFB Cornwallis) is a former Canadian Forces Base located in Deep Brook, Nova Scotia.
It is situated in the western part of Annapolis County on the southern shore of the Annapolis Basin. Today most of the base is a civilian business park known as Cornwallis Park.
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. Ilsley, the federal Minister of Finance and MP for Digby—Annapolis—Kings forced DND to reconsider.[citation needed] 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.
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. A booklet published ca. 1944 illustrates various aspects of wartime training at HMCS Cornwallis.
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CFB Cornwallis
Canadian Forces Base Cornwallis (also CFB Cornwallis) is a former Canadian Forces Base located in Deep Brook, Nova Scotia.
It is situated in the western part of Annapolis County on the southern shore of the Annapolis Basin. Today most of the base is a civilian business park known as Cornwallis Park.
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. Ilsley, the federal Minister of Finance and MP for Digby—Annapolis—Kings forced DND to reconsider.[citation needed] 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.
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. A booklet published ca. 1944 illustrates various aspects of wartime training at HMCS Cornwallis.
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