THE SHIRLEYS BAY SITE NAME

by
Jim Norman

There is confusion surrounding the name of the site of DREO and CRC, and the following has been provided by The Canadian Permanent Committee on Geographical Names. The land presently occupied by CRC and DREO (the Site) originally was deeded to a Thomas Shirley, the bay on the Ottawa River became known as "Shirley's Bay", and the surrounding land area came to be called "the Shirley's Bay Area". During WWII, the area came to be known as "Shirley Bay". This name continued in use at least until 1956 and is used throughout the official history of DRB "A History of the Defence Research Board of Canada" by Capt. D.J. Goodspeed of the Army Historical Section, a forerunner of the present-day Canadian Forces Directorate of History. It then was supplanted by the older Shirley's Bay name (indeed, the "Ottawa Citizen" had always used this name, and continues to do so to tbis day). In 1962, the Permanent Committee assigned "Shirleys Bay" as the official place name, in line with its policy decision to delete apostrophes or other punctuation in Canadian Places Names. This Shirleys Bay name is now used on all official maps and in all official references.

Source: The 50th Anniversary Edition of the History for Defence Research Establishment Ottawa, compiles and edited by Jim Norman and Rita Crow, 1991.