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16-598: Unlike nearby Armour Heights Field , the airfield was not abandoned at the end of the war, but was acquired for use by the Toronto Flying Club . During the war, the airstrip became the site of Canada's first delivery of airmail on 24 June 1918 when pilot Brian Peck delivered 120 letters from Montreal (taking off from Bois-Franc Field ). This delivery was initially organized at the behest of some of his friends in Montreal who wanted letters delivered to Toronto; however when

32-496: Is now named. 43°44′27″N 079°25′20″W  /  43.74083°N 79.42222°W  / 43.74083; -79.42222  ( Armour Heights Field ) Canadian Forces College The Canadian Forces College ( CFC ) is a military staff college for senior and general officers of the Canadian Armed Forces . It provides graduate-level military education courses designed to develop leadership abilities within

48-762: The Post Office Department heard of the plans, they gathered together the letters as a test of an airmail system. A modern plaque at the site of Leaside Aerodrome reads: "At 10:12 a.m. on 24 June 1918, Captain Brian Peck of the Royal Air Force and mechanic Corporal C.W. Mathers took off from the Bois Franc Polo Grounds in Montreal in a JN-4 Curtiss two-seater airplane. They had with them the first bag of mail to be delivered by air in Canada. Wind and rain buffetted

64-706: The Royal Canadian Air Force rented it from him to use as a wartime staff college. In the autumn of 1945, the Government of Canada bought the estate from Ellsworth for $ 103,500. In 1945, the college was re-designated as the Royal Canadian Air Force Staff College, which became a component of the Air Force College in 1962. The Air Force College also included a Headquarters, a Staff School and an Extension School. Following integration of

80-598: The Royal Flying Corps days is the stone building currently housing the Armour Heights Officers Mess, a Tudor-Revival home built in 1914 by George and Moorhouse Architects for Colonel Frederick Burton Robins (1866-1948), Honorary Colonel of the Toronto Scottish Regiment and real estate developer. Robins had acquired the land from family of original settler John Armour, for whom the area

96-638: The Canadian Armed Forces, the college was renamed as the Canadian Forces College (CFC) in 1966. The Tudor Revival mansion containing the Officers' Mess was designated a "Recognized Federal Heritage Building" by the Canadian government in 1991. The Canadian Forces Staff School for junior officers, formerly located at 1107 Avenue Road, was determined to be redundant and closed in 1994. That property

112-631: The Canadian Forces in a whole-of-government framework. The CFC campus is located at 215 Yonge Boulevard, on the north side of Wilson Avenue in the Armour Heights neighborhood of Toronto , Ontario. The institution was established in 1943 as the Royal Canadian Air Force War Staff College. The site was originally a property named Strathrobyn that was owned by real estate developer Frederick Burton Robins (1866–1948), and

128-448: The airport in 1931. During the war the area to the south, between the airstrip and the former Northern Railway of Canada lines, were intensely developed as Research Enterprises Limited , joining a number of other small industrial firms. Between June 1942 and March 1944, the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) operated No. 1 RDF ( Radio Direction Finding ) School at Leaside, and the station was briefly known as RCAF Station Leaside . Although

144-593: The airport was replaced with industrial uses, the last hangar (south as the north hangar used to occupy the vacant gap until Eglinton Avenue was extended from Laird east to Don Valley) was not removed until 1971. In the post-war era the area remained the site of heavy and light industry until the turn of the century, when many of the industries left the area. The area is now primarily home to small industrial businesses and big box stores. The first short story published by Nobel Prize recipient William Faulkner , Landing in Luck ,

160-496: The centrepiece was a large Tudor Revival mansion which was built around 1914 pursuant to a design by the architectural firm of George & Moorhouse. The estate was renamed as Glenalton after it was purchased in 1926 for $ 175,000 by businessman Albert Leroy Ellsworth (1876–1950), who had founded the British American Oil Company in 1906. Ellsworth used the property as his residence until about 1942, at which point

176-495: The school had a short life as it closed around the time the Armistice was signed, on November 11, 1918. The airfield had six hangars and a smaller structure housing offices. In 1919, Bishop-Barker Airplanes Limited, founded by World War I Royal Flying Corps veterans William "Billy" Bishop and William Barker , took over the aerodrome . This business venture offered a charter services, aircraft sales and maintenance company, but

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192-592: The small plane and forced it to make refuelling stops at Kingston and Deseronto. Finally, at 4:55 p.m., Peck and Mathers landed at the Leaside Aerodrome (immediately southwest of here). The flight had been arranged by a civilian organization, the Aerial League of the British Empire, to demonstrate that aviation was the way of the future." A regular air express service began in 1928. The Toronto Flying Club closed

208-574: Was also short-lived and closed in 1921, and one of Canada's busiest airfields at the time was simply abandoned. Evidence of the field's tarmac was still visible until late 2015 on Ravenhill Road, but was paved over shortly after. This was the last piece of visual evidence of the aerodrome's existence. The site is now the Canadian Forces College , which teaches the Command and Staff courses to officers of all three service branches. The only remnant of

224-626: Was later sold to the Metropolitan Separate School Board (now called the Toronto Catholic District School Board ), and it re-opened in 1998 as Marshall McLuhan Catholic Secondary School . The programmes at the College are designed to “provide high-quality professional military education for selected Canadian and international officers[.]” The curriculum includes military doctrine, exercise and simulation, and

240-661: Was likely set at the Leaside Aerodrome. While a student at the School of Military Aeronautics at the University of Toronto in 1918, Faulkner would have had many opportunities to observe the operations at this airfield. Armour Heights Field Armour Heights Field was home to a Royal Flying Corps airfield in Toronto, Ontario , Canada during World War I , and was one of three in the area. Many RFC (later, Royal Air Force ) pilots trained in Canada due to space availability. The airfield

256-534: Was opened in July 1917, but closed in 1919 as the war had ended. It was later developed as a residential development and remains as such today. In 1917, an airfield was constructed near the site of the present Avenue Road and Route 401 interchange, and early the following year, the School of Special Flying opened. Student pilots received instruction on the basics of flight, aerial reconnaissance and aerial combat . However,

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