Wellesley, Ontario that much of the land had been "Queen's Rush, crown land, where fifty acre lots were given away to actual settlers". The Population of the entire township in 1841, was only 254. The area now the village of Wellesley on the Nith River was first settled in 1847, by John Smith and was originally called "Schmidtsville". The post office opened in 1851 and the village was renamed "Wellesley" after Richard Wellesley, 1st Marquess Wellesley, the eldest brother of Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington. The community quickly grew to be the largest economic centre in rural Waterloo County, with a
Vickers Wellesley Bomber Command in the early years of the European war. In February 1940, three Wellesleys (K7728, K7735 and K8531) were sold to Egypt to serve in the Royal Egyptian Air Force. Vickers Wellesley The Vickers Wellesley was a British 1930s light bomber built by Vickers-Armstrongs at Brooklands near Weybridge, Surrey, for the Royal Air Force. While it was obsolete by the start of the Second World War and unsuited to the European air war, the Wellesley was operated in the desert theatres of East Africa, Egypt and the Middle East. It was one of two planes named after Arthur Wellesley,