Oshawa Military and Industrial Museum - Historical Development

Historical Development

The Ontario Regiment Ferret Club, a component of the Ontario Regiment (RCAC) Museum and, in turn, the Oshawa Military and Industrial Museum, has come a long way its original conception and organization in 1980. With the assistance of the Department of National Defence and the guidance of the Ontarios’ commanding officer and soldiers (not to mention the generous financial backing of the Ontarios’ Honorary Lieutenant Colonel, the late Lieutenant Colonel Norman F. Wilton, a former regimental officer and World War II veteran of the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion), the organization’s collection was initially a nine-car troop of fully restored, surplus Canadian Ferret armoured cars.

The troop paraded frequently throughout its early years at regimental functions, ceremonial activities and parades in Oshawa, Durham Region and beyond. The museum's collection now boasts over 70 vehicles and features several Oshawa, Ontario-built General Motors standard military pattern vehicles, employed by the Canadian Army during World War II.

The Ferret Club set up shop in 1980 in a two-bay garage which stood at the northeast corner of Simcoe Street North and Glover's Road in north Oshawa. The Club subsequently relocated to a one-time dairy farm on Oshawa's 8th Concession for much of the 1980s before the landowner decided to resume dairy production on the property. It became necessary to find a permanent home for the museum's rapidly growing collection. It was felt there was no more appropriate location than the historically important Oshawa Airport lands, one of the many British Commonwealth Air Training Plan sites for allied pilot (including Americans) training during the Second World War.