Suffield Experimental Station

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.

[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.

[2] 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 research activities of the Station are described in John Bryden's "Deadly Allies"[3].By the end of the Second World War, the station employed 584 personnel[4] trained in chemistry, physics, meteorology, mathematics, pharmacology, pathology, bacteriology, physiology, entomology, veterinary science, mechanical and chemical engineering.

The responsibility for administrating the station, including the Suffield Block, was transferred to the Defence Research Board[5][6] on April 30, 1947, by Order in Council PC 101/1727.

Control of Experimental Station Suffield was transferred from the Canadian Army to the Defence Research Board (DRB) on April 30, 1947 by Order in Council PC 101/1727.

The DRB's annual report for 1951[9] listed various major construction projects in progress at station: Shopping and Recreation Centre, Transport Garage, CMHC Housing (76 homes), the Ralston School (a Recognized Federal Heritage Building), and a Fire Hall.

Detonation of a spherical surface charge of 454 metric tonnes of TNT to assess the effects of nuclear weapons at the Suffield Experimental Station in Alberta on July 17, 1964.