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Winnipeg honors
spymaster Intrepid
A downtown street has a new name to honour Winnipeg's spymaster supreme.
Water Street has been renamed William Stephenson Way in honour of Winnipeg's celebrated Second World War intelligence operative.
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Winnipegger Bill Macdonald, author of The True Intrepid: Sir William Stephenson and the Unknown Agents, said it's great to see Intrepid getting his due.
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"I think it's great he's finally getting recognition in Winnipeg," Macdonald said. "He was from here, and many people didn't know he was.
He was a very important character to the world we live in today." - Winnipeg Sun
Stephenson artifacts on display at 17 Wing
The Royal Canadian Air Force's connection with the City of Winnipeg goes back to 1922, when a station of the old Air Board was opened here to serve as a winter base for detachments operating in Northern Manitoba during the remainder of the year.
RCAF Station Winnipeg officially opened in April 1925 - one of the first Air Force Bases in Canada.
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Some of Stephenson's artifacts are now on display.
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Camp X versus CBC's spy drama
​Camp X was a highly secretive and elite international spy school during World War II. It was the first spy training facility in North America, and it was located in the last place you’d expect: on a farm near Whitby, Ontario. Few knew about it then and not many know about it now.
Camp X is considered the foundation of modern North American spy training, especially because the camp’s leader, Sir William Stephenson, was credited with teaching Americans about foreign intelligence gathering. Agents from the FBI and the Office of Strategic Services (a predecessor of the CIA) secretly attended Camp X. The CIA even named their recruit training facility "The Farm” – a nod to the original farm that existed at the Camp X site
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It was the real-life inspiration for a CBC’s spy drama.
Sir William Stephenson honoured with Manitoba lake
The Government of Manitoba is honouring Stephenson, who was born 125 years ago, with the naming of Sir William Stephenson Lake located between lakes Winnipeg and Manitoba.
“This is a great tribute to a really outstanding Canadian,” said Dwight MacAulay, president of the Intrepid Society, in an interview on Sunday."
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Secret Secretaries:
The women of British Security coordination
This one-hour documentary examines the vital role Canadian women played in putting an end to WW2 by working with "the man they called Intrepid", spymaster William Stephenson. The documentary features unique archival footage and compelling interviews with some of Canada's last living "secretaries".
The Globe and Mail's Television writer, John Doyle calls it "an excellent new documentary with potential for a series".
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True Intrepid documentary
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"This doc unravels his cipher-like existence and proclaims his fundamental role in the successful outcome of the Second World War."
The Globe and Mail
From Mid Canada Productions and CanWest Entertainment.
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The True Intrepid documentary was shown at a Winnipeg Imax. It was a fund raiser for the Canadian Museum of Human Rights - and included a martini and a 'spy glass.'
A meeting in Toronto during filming of The Canadians: Marion deChastelain
The late Robert Stuart Camp X historian, Bill Macdonald, and the late Charmian Manchee (William Stephenson's former inner office cipher clerk) share a laugh.
Downtown Whitby to get statue of Camp X founder
Sir William Stephenson
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An eye-catching, life-sized bronze statue of Sir William Stephenson, who founded and was in charge of Whitby’s Camp X during the Second World War, has been approved at the committee level by town council. It passed at council on Oct. 28. It is planned in Ontario, Whitby, Ajax area-near the former Camp X.
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"But the leaders of the new order did not reckon with the indomitable courage of the individual. The urge towards freedom is irrepressible. Multiplied many times, it generates a force that cannot be measured...Many times in the past it has slowed the onslaught of a tyrant and helped bring about his downfall. Tolstoy in War and Peace referred to it as the mysterious force of X.
I was priviliged in World War II to have played a role in helping this force to be generated and brought into play."
William Stephenson
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(The True Intrepid p. 151, Intrepid's Last Secrets p. 354 - 356)
The Stephenson Statue was completed in 2021 in Whitby Ontario.
The sculptor, Ruth Abernathy reading here from the book
'The True Intrepid'.
That book is never mentioned in the documentary.
Ruth simply learns from "a book."
Thanks Whitby !