Barbara Dickson’s new book on local WWII history is now available
Scarborough resident Barbara Dickson is an award-winning author, historian and documentarist with over 25 years experience. In 2023 she founded the Bomb Girls Legacy Foundation to commemorate contributions made by Canadian war workers.
Her latest book is Courage and Grit: The Legacy of Canada’s Bomb Girls. It was released in October by Dundurn Press and is now available.
MPulse Scarborough corresponded with Dickson over e-mail about her latest release. The below answers have been condensed for length.
What inspired you to tell the story about the Bomb Girls?
I was born, raised and have lived in Scarborough my entire life (I’m well into my seventh decade now.) Can you imagine my shock when I learned at a community event held 25 years ago that there is an over-four-kilometre elaborate system of tunnels under the city built during the war for a munitions factory? I had no idea. Writing novel-length fiction at the time, I thought what a cool backdrop for a spooky novel – set in long-abandoned war tunnels.
However, at that event I was introduced to Carol who had worked at the wartime factory, and I was dumfounded to learn no one had documented the war plant’s existence or the stories of the men and women who filled the munitions there. Subsequently, I met Carol’s friend Molly, and I came to the disheartening realization that there was an appalling gap in Canadian historical literature regarding these courageous women. I retired from writing fiction and began a ten-year odyssey in researching and interviewing these lovely “Bomb Girls” and their loved ones. These brave Canadians touched my soul – I had to tell the world just how special they were.
The GECO Scarborough plant employed over 21,000 people (mostly women) located on 346 acres of Scarborough farmland and comprised 172 buildings. From 1941 – 1945, bomb girls filled over a quarter of a billion rounds of ammunition for the Allied forces.
The facility had a cafeteria that served up to 1,100 meals every 30 minutes, a fully staffed hospital, extensive recreation facilities including skating rinks, baseball diamonds, victory gardens, and hobby shows, and an annual Miss War Worker beauty pageant. Armed guards walked the barbed-wire chain linked perimeter 24/7 to thwart any enemy infiltration. GECO essentially became a city located in the wilderness of rural Scarborough.
Dundurn Press published my first book, Bomb Girls: Trading Aprons for Ammo in 2015. My follow-on book, Courage and Grit: The Legacy of Canada’s Bomb Girls features dozens of heart-warming and poignant stories about these women ― from farmers’ daughters to lawyers, impoverished immigrants to Rosedale elites, and high school students to great-grandmothers. Each narrative is unique, intimately personal, and painstakingly examined.
What information did you learn that really surprised you?
I discovered that decades before the women’s liberation movement took hold in Canada women stepped out of their domestic roles and worked “in a man’s world,” breaking long-held ideals of how a woman should behave and present themselves within society. Many women handled high explosives in munitions factories, risking their lives daily. Many were injured when detonators exploded in their hands and up into their faces; some died.
What lessons can readers take away from your book?
We must never take our freedom for granted. It was bought at a high price from men dying on battlefields and women dying on the home front.
We must preserve the old GECO lands here in Scarborough. Of the 172 original buildings built during the war, 20 remain today. I know of no other Second World War site that still has such an enduring footprint. We must fight to protect our military and cultural history. It starts here in Scarborough.
What parts of this story will be particularly compelling to Scarborough residents?
The old GECO site remains as an iconic area of south Scarborough, with its remaining buildings and its tunnels one of Toronto’s best kept secrets. Southeast from Warden and Eglinton Avenues lays a treasure trove of history for every Scarberian to discover.
Heritage Toronto unveiled a plaque commemorating the General Engineering Company (GECO) munitions site on November 10, 2025, near the water tower at Warden Avenue and Civic Road.
