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William Stephenson Way unveiled Sunday

WINNIPEG - Winnipeg will honour one of its most celebrated citizens Sunday when it officially changes the name of Water Avenue to William Stephenson Way.

Stephenson, who was knighted for this contributions as Winston Churchill's master spy, grew up in Point Douglas, not far from the corner of Main Street and the renamed road where Deputy Mayor Justin Swandel and a host of dignitaries will gather for the ceremony.

It begins at 2:30 p.m.

The eastbound one-way street runs from Main Street, just south of Portage Avenue, to the Provencher Bridge.

During his lifetime Stephenson, like the roadway that will honour him, was known by various names.

He was born with the surname Stanger and code-named by British intelligence.

Novelist Ian Fleming also loosely based James Bond after Stephenson.

Stephenson, who became a wealthy businessman and is credited with inventing the technology that we now know as the Fax, graduated from being a flying ace in the First World to master-minding Britain's intelligence during the Second World War and helping found the organization that would become America's Central Intelligence Agency.

He moved to Britain and 1921 and died in Bermuda in 1989, shortly after his 93rd birthday.

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