ONTARIO

Land Force Central Area Training Centre Meaford:

Originally opened in 1942 as a detachment of Camp Borden, the Meaford Army Armoured Fighting Vehicle Range (also known locally as the Meaford Tank Range) served as a training camp for the Royal Canadian Armoured Corps School, as well as a gunnery range for various artillery regiments.

The Camp would remain open as a part of the post-war Army. In 1955, the Royal Canadian Armoured Corps School was given full responsibility for the Meaford AFV Range. The Field Training Section ran the training at the camp with their fleet of Centurions & Sherman tanks and 22 Sherman APCs.

Meaford was a very busy training camp until the late 1960s when all Armoured Corps activity ceased. The Royal Canadian Armoured Corps School departed Borden for CFB Gagetown in 1970.

Although the site never officially closed, the guards at the main gate were all that remained until 1973, when Militia units in Southern Ontario began using the site as a training area in the early 1970s.  The derelict World War II-era barracks remained empty as the troops were quartered in tents. The property was designated the Meaford Range and Training Area.  

In 1973 the Owen Sound Chamber of Commerce petitioned the Federal government to develop the land as a Federal park, to be named the Lester Bowles Pearson Memorial National Park, but the idea was rejected.

The introduction of new vehicles and weaponry, namely the Grizzly and Cougar light armoured vehicles in the early 1980s, saw use of MRTA ranges increase substantially, particularly given that CFB Petawawa's ranges were insufficient.

By the late 1980s, the Federal Government recognized a need to revitalize the neglected Militia. Subsequently, the Meaford Training Area was made a permanent establishment in 1989 for the purpose of training Militia soldiers.  Named CFB Borden - Meaford Detachment, the base received more that $80 million for the construction of roads, barracks, messes, offices, recreational facilities and work-shops. The training centre was re-named Militia Training and Support Centre Meaford in 1992.

In 1995, the Royal Canadian Regiment Battle School relocated to MTSC Meaford from CFB Petawawa, allowing Meaford to become a major training centre in Ontario. That same year, MTSC Meaford was once again re-named Land Force Central Area Training Centre Meaford and all support elements at the base became the responsibility of a civilian company, Canadian Base Operators, Inc.

"Today the Centre is considered to be state-of-the-art. It's primary purpose: to revolutionize the training of reserves" (ATC Meaford - A Short Base History).

Source Material: ATC Meaford - A Short Base History, supplied by Lieutenant-Colonel M.P. Zuwerkalow, Commanding Officer, Land Force Central Area Training Centre Meaford (1999), "The Owen Sound Sun Times" from 21 September 1995, ATC Meaford web site - http://www.meaford.com/atc2.html, the personal recollections of ex-Private Phillip Schwartz, Grey & Simcoe Foresters (2002), the Armour School web site - http://www.army.forces.gc.ca/Armour_school/histor_e.asp, information supplied by the Midland Huronia Museum (2004) & the personal recollections of Colonel J.C. Forsyth, OBStJ, CD, Honorary Colonel, Royal Hamilton Light Infantry - 1993-2007 (1999).