John Maynard Keynes (1883 - 1946) He was a Fellow and Bursar of King's College, and was an economist, philosopher, businessman, civil servant, and diplomat. He founded the Cambridge Arts Theatre on 3rd February 1936. Location: 6 St Edward's Passage, Cambridge CB2 3PL Expand John Maynard Keynes was the elder son of a Cambridge academic marriage, between John Neville Keynes, lately of Pembroke College and Florence Brown, one of the early students of Newnham College. Maynard was born and brought up at 6 Harvey Road, where his parents lived for the rest of their lives. After school at Eton, he was admitted to King’s College to read Maths, but his energetic mind sought and absorbed material from many other fields. He graduated in 1905 and turned to Economics, which had only recently become a Cambridge Tripos course. Then, after two years in the civil service in London, where his work included the study of finance and currency in India, he returned to Cambridge as a lecturer in economics and a Fellow of King’s. From 1909 until 1915 he taught, studied and wrote, becoming also editor of the Economic Journal. His influence and reputation spread, and in the early days of World War I he was invited to work in the Treasury, where he stayed for the duration of the war. His work brought him in contact with a wide and influential circle including successive prime ministers. At the close of the war, he was involved as Treasury representative with calculations of German reparations. He disagreed strongly with the final punitive terms, and resigned his post to write Economic Consequences of the Peace. He returned to spend more time in Cambridge, but observed in a letter to his mother, ‘It’s amusing to pass from Cambridge, where I’m a nonentity, to London, where I’m a celebrity.’During the twenties and thirties he engaged in speculation in foreign currencies. After an initial failure, he exercised greater care and enjoyed great success. He was appointed First Bursar of King’s College in 1924 and was able to employ his skill in investment to the benefit of the College. ‘His success in increasing the revenues of King’s was spectacular…’ To combine his various interests, he spent long weekends at King’s, short weeks in London. He was engaged in boards and committees for a number of commercial organisations, but continued to teach and write. He published A Treatise on Money in 1930 followed by the General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money in 1936 which expanded further his international reputation and influenced President Roosevelt’s ‘New Deal’ in America. From his early days he took an active interest in books, becoming a regular customer of David’s bookstall on Cambridge market, and the arts. He was one of the Bloomsbury group, a set of artists and writers which had its origins in Cambridge before coalescing in that area of London. In 1919 the Russian Diaghilev brought his ballet company to London, with the celebrated ballerina Lydia Lopokova. On a second visit, in 1921, Keynes fell in love with Lydia. She remained in London, was introduced to the Bloomsbury circle and danced in various productions. In August 1925 she and Keynes were married and their shared interest in the theatre remained an important part of Keynes’ life. In the early thirties, Keynes’ interest in the arts focused on Cambridge, where he had discerned a lack of provision for the performing arts. He had all the resources and contacts needed to take action. He conceived the notion of a theatre that would accommodate drama, music, opera, dance and cinema, to be built on land belonging to King’s College. The Arts Theatre was opened in 1936:‘Keynes was in every sense responsible – for the idea, for the execution, and for the finance.’ He had personal reasons too for the foundation. In a letter to the mayor, he said that the establishment of the theatre Trust, with the prospect of being of equal benefit to town and University, should also be a form of memorial to his parents, who had spent active and productive lives in the local community for over fifty years. (His mother was a Borough Councillor, mayor in 1932-3.)Keynes was often at the theatre, not only for his own pleasure, but also because he was determined that the finances should not be endangered by a lack of attention to detail. Nothing was too trivial for him. ‘There was even an occasion when, by some mishap, the box-office clerk failed to appear and Keynes himself went into the box-office to issue tickets.’ From 1937 he and Lydia took a Cambridge flat at 17a St Edward’s Passage, looking across the churchyard to the theatre.In November that year he suffered a very serious heart attack, and although he recovered and resumed a demanding life, lesser attacks followed. At the outbreak of World War II Keynes returned to the Treasury. He was created a peer (Lord Keynes of Tilton) in 1942.Despite the other demands made on him, he retained his strong commitment to the arts, as a force for good. He became Chairman of the Committee for the Encouragement of Music and Arts (CEMA) in 1942 and mapped out the national support for the arts, which then took long-term form as the Arts Council. While still negotiating post-war financial agreements with America, he collapsed and died in 1946.
Agnes Smith Lewis (1843-1926 ) & Margaret Dunlop Gibson (1843-1920) Twin sisters and intrepid Biblical scholars, they donated land for the building of Westminster College. The twins were born in Irvine, in Scotland and lived in Cambridge from 1888 until their deaths. It was in Cambridge that they became eminent scholars of ancient Biblical manuscripts in Greek, Hebrew, Arabic and Syriac. The plaque is located on the entrance gate to Westminster College on Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 0AA. Expand (Portrait of Agnes Smith Lewis by James Peddie with permission of Westminster College) Their mother died two weeks after they were born, and they were raised by their father, John Smith, a lawyer who firmly believed in education for his daughters. Their father died when the twins were only 23, leaving them independent – and independently wealthy. In 1868, Margaret and Agnes embarked on a year-long trip to Egypt – the first of a total of nine visits they were to make to the country – going up the Nile, and on via Jaffa to Jerusalem. After their return, in 1883, Margaret married James Young Gibson, essayist and translator; but she was widowed after only three years of marriage. The sisters then moved to Cambridge, where Agnes married Samuel Savage Lewis, Fellow of Corpus Christi College and Parker Librarian, in 1887. The sisters wrote books and novels, and learned Arabic, Hebrew, and Syriac; and after the death of Samuel Savage Lewis in 1891, they devoted themselves to the study of Biblical manuscripts. In 1892 they visited Egypt again, and at St Catherine’s Monastery in Sinai they famously discovered the Sinaitic palimpsest – the oldest known copy of the Gospels. In 1893 they returned to photograph, transcribe, and translate the manuscript, with three other Cambridge scholars, RL Bensly, Francis Burkitt, and James Rendel Harris. (Portrait of Margaret Dunlop Gibson by James Peddie with permission of Westminster College) Following this pioneering research, the sisters also found – on a visit to Cairo in 1896 – leaves from an early 11-12th century Hebrew manuscript of Ecclesiasticus (also called Sirach or Ben Sira). Using the leaves the sisters had found, Solomon Schechter discovered the lost Cairo Genizah - an area in a synagogue for storing worn-out books and papers - and in 1897 the sisters joined Schechter in working to collect the material found there. With the permission of the Chief Rabbi of Cairo, Schechter took it back to Cambridge, and it is now housed in the Genizah Research Unit at the University Library. In recognition of their achievements, and at a time when Cambridge University did not award degrees to women, Mrs Lewis was awarded an honorary doctorate from Halle in 1899, and both sisters were given honorary doctorates by the University of St Andrew’s, Heidelberg, and Trinity College, Dublin. The sisters were also committed to ensuring that learning was passed on, and the motto above the door in their home in Cambridge was ‘lampada tradam’ – ‘I will pass on the torch’. On their death, their manuscripts were given to Westminster College; and the material they brought back from the Genizah has recently been reunited with Solomon Schechter’s collection at the University Library, for study by the global community of scholars.As Presbyterians, another expression of the sisters’ commitment to learning was their generosity to Westminster College, then the training college for the Presbyterian Church of England. In 1896 the College moved from London to its current site in Cambridge, onto land Mrs Lewis and Mrs Gibson purchased from St John’s College and gave to the Church. The sisters gave generously to the building appeal, laid the foundation stone for the College in 1897, and endowed the Lewis-Gibson scholarship, which still runs. Westminster College opened in 1899, and still trains people for ministry today. A book about the sisters by Professor Janet Soskice was published in 2009 Sisters of Sinai: How Two Lady Adventurers Found the Hidden Gospels. You can view the remarkable travel photographs of the sisters on Cambridge University Library's Digital Library website by clicking here. A blue plaque to commemorate the twin sisters was unveiled by Professor Soskice at a ceremony at Westminster College on 1 June 2019. The plaque was kindly sponsored by Westminster College.
David Gregory Marshall (1873 - 1942) He was a University caterer, a sportsman, and an early pioneer of motoring and flying. He was the founder of Marshall of Cambridge; the Head Office was situated in Jesus Lane from 1912 to 1939, and continued as a garage until 2000. Location: Jesus Lane, Cambridge, CB5 9BJ. Expand David Gregory Marshall was born in Cambridge in humble circumstances and had to make his own way in life. At the age of 14 in 1887, he began his apprenticeship in the kitchens of Trinity College, where his entrepreneurial spirit and business sense were quickly recognised. This led at the beginning of the century, to his being appointed as Steward and Manager of the University Pitt Club, where he was given the responsibility of recovering the Club’s poor financial position. Sir Walter Morley Fletcher, the President, wrote in his History of the University Pitt Club that ‘Mr D G Marshall’s services to the Club were very remarkable. It was he who instituted the system of catering on a wide and profitable scale and, during his stewardship; the Club acquired a large and elaborate kitchen. Until he came to the office, the accounts showed a regular deficit but, after one term of his management, profits appeared. “Napoleon of the Pitt” as he came to be called, laid the foundations of his present prosperous garage and aerodrome business by providing private cars, which members might hire. One of these, with a smart chauffeur, was regularly seen waiting outside the Club in Jesus Lane.’ In 1906, David Marshall visited Paris for the first time and was amazed at the advanced state of motoring compared with England. He made up his mind that he must somehow get into the motoring business as soon as possible, and he established a chauffeur drive business in a stable in Brunswick Gardens in 1909, where he garaged his two Metallurgique saloon cars, and in 1910 extended to a garage in King Street before the addition of a Cottin-Desgouttes landaulette and a touring car, all providing transport for the wealthy dons and undergraduates. In 1912 the business moved to a new garage and showroom in Jesus Lane, on the site of the old Crown Inn and livery stables. David Marshall was enthused by aviation and his first direct contact with it was in 1912 when his mechanics assisted in repairs to an Army airship ‘The Beta’ which had made a forced landing in Jesus College grounds, immediately behind the garage. During the 1914 – 1918 War, the Jesus Lane garage was used for servicing and repairing vehicles required for the war effort, including Rolls-Royce armoured cars and also the ambulances used for collecting the seriously wounded soldiers from the railway station and taking them to the First Eastern General Hospital, a hutted hospital (on the site of the present University Library) and the largest in the country. During this time the Company changed its name to Marshall’s Garage. David Marshall, over military age at 42, was determined to join the forces. He was on good terms with some Quaker members of the Pitt Club and he was able to go to France for several months in a voluntary capacity with a catering unit, wearing a uniformed officer’s ranking with responsibility for building up the Catering Units immediately behind the front lines. He was awarded the Mons medal for this service. Returning from France, he was appointed to organise the catering at the Woolwich Arsenal, where he provided over 50,000 meals, day and night, for munitions workers. It was during the course of this work, for which he was awarded the MBE that Marshall was asked by the Ministry of Food to advise on canteen problems at the Austin factory at Longbridge Birmingham. This inspired him, after the war, to seek an Austin dealership and in 1920 he obtained the first dealership in Cambridgeshire. Marshall was known in local circles both for his business integrity (he reinsured customers at his own expense when the company he had first used went bankrupt) and for his keen participation in all forms of sport. He had a particular enthusiasm for riding and imported Arab horses from Egypt. He was also keen on horse racing, and his horses had some success. His son Arthur joined him in the garage business in 1926. They also pursued their shared interest in aviation and opened a flying school in 1929. This was a popular venture, with both University and townsmen, and Marshall bought farmland (now the Whitehill Road estate) for an airfield. Although Marshall had not long retired to Hove, the outbreak of World War II brought him back to Cambridge to play a part in the company’s support for the war effort. Pilots were trained for the RAF and aircraft repaired and modified. During the War the Company elementary-trained over 20,000 pilots and repaired or modified over 5,000 aircraft. David Marshall died suddenly on 9 July 1942 whilst riding one of his Arab horses on Coldham’s Common near the airdrome.
Henry Morris (1889 - 1961) He is known primarily as the pioneer of Communitiy Education, and in particular, the Cambridgeshire Village Colleges. As the Chief Education Officer for Cambridgeshire for over thirty years, his vision was to provide 'Education from the cradle to the grave'. Location: 4 Silver St, Cambridge, CB3 9ET Expand https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Morris_(education)
John Mortlock (1755 - 1816) The house at 10 Peas Hill was once his home where he opened the first banking house in Cambridge. He was a draper, banker, MP, recorder and 13-times mayor, and was hence known as the 'Master of the town of Cambridge'. He was called corrupt by his political oppenents, which led to his stance: 'That which you call corruption I call influence'. Location: 10 Peas Hill, Cambridge, CB2 3QB Expand The very sleepy Cambridge of the 1770s was given a jolt when young John Mortlock, third of the name, jumped over the draper’s counter to enter local politics. His family was moderately prosperous and owned property south of the town at Pampisford. They had made no particular mark in Cambridge affairs and had not even become freemen. John Mortlock II owned a draper’s shop near the Rose Inn (that is, on the north side of the market) which his son inherited in 1775. Cambridge was once described as having no history in the eighteenth century. Town and University both went about their business in a fairly lethargic manner and no great events shook them out of their complacency or required even the routine fulfilment of their functions. The Cambridge Corporation had few obligations. It managed certain properties round the town, some of them for charitable causes, and it organised the three annual fairs. It issued occasional directions relating to cleanliness and hygiene, but had no regular obligation to pave or light the town. Only a minority of Cambridge residents played a formal part in the running of the town. For that it was necessary to be a freeman, and only eldest sons and apprentices of freemen were automatically eligible. Any others had to pay. There were around 180 – 200 freemen, nearly half of whom lived elsewhere. The remaining 1,000 rate-paying householders in the town had no official voice. In 1776 Mortlock married Elizabeth Harrison, only daughter of Stephen Harrison, a prosperous grocer (who had also had the good luck in 1763 to be a sharer in a large lottery win). Elizabeth was described by the Cambridge Chronicle as ‘an accomplished young lady with a large fortune’. With his own inheritance and his wife’s fortune at command, Mortlock decided he would make his mark in the town. He paid £40 to become a freeman (far more than a year’s income to labouring families) and two years later was elected a Common Councilman. About the same time he took the bold step of opening a bank – the first in Cambridge. This was a great amenity to businesses in the area, lessening the need to carry large sums of gold or to deal in credit through London businesses. The University opened an account and so did many individuals. Although Mortlock made many enemies in his later actions, no-one ever accused him of any improper action in his banking. While the Corporation had few duties, its members did have political views and a vote in the election of the town’s two members of Parliament. National parties were keen to influence the vote and if possible to get their own nominees elected. Opinions in Cambridge in the 1770s divided sharply over national questions: the war of independence in America, and the very limited Parliamentary franchise and the scope it gave to corruption. When public meetings were held on these issues in 1780, Mortlock joined the radicals on the side of reform, and came in contact with the young Duke of Rutland. The Duke was looking to develop his influence in Cambridge, and the two young men recognised the opportunities offered by an association. Mortlock organised a breakaway club for aldermen in the Eagle inn (the traditional gathering place was the Rose) which was acknowledged to support the Duke’s party. From 1784 to 1788 he was one of Cambridge’s two Members of Parliament. In 1782 Mortlock became an Alderman, and in 1785 was elected mayor. The mayoralty customarily passed around the aldermen so that most of them had one turn in office. Very rarely, one would get a second term in later years. At the end of Mortlock’s year his friend Alderman Francis was elected. The following year Mortlock was re-elected, and he was then mayor in alternate years until 1809, with first Francis and later his son John Cheetham Mortlock in the office in the other years. ‘I hear on all sides that Mortlock has made himself master of the town of Cambridge.’ Rutland’s agent commented in 1787. How did he do it? At this distance in time, it is impossible to say, but a glance at his portrait, now in the Mayor’s Parlour in the Guildhall, suggests personal good looks and charm may have contributed, allied to the influence and power of the Duke of Rutland and the hold Mortlock later had as banker to a large section of Cambridge society. As Mayor, he engineered the changes to Corporation by-laws and practice that enabled him to stay in power, and he used the corporation assets to reward his followers. Although his procedures were resented by some, and the Corporation’s assets stripped, he was personal liked by some who did not personally benefit from his procedures. In 1794 poor harvests pushed up the price of wheat and bread and crowds of desperate people were threatening to raid the mills for flour. Mortlock spent a day on horseback in the throng, keeping matters calm and refusing to draft in constables or militia who might, by precipitate action, inflame the situation. He organised the distribution of flour and meat at ‘fair’ prices, to ever-growing crowds, showing considerable personal bravery in this volatile situation. Mortlock kept a firm hold on the town for years and it wasn’t until the 1830s that national government passed laws to reform the administration of boroughs like Cambridge.Mortlock died at his Cambridge home in May 1816, three days after his son was knighted by the Prince Regent. He was buried in St Edward’s church. Notes The bulk of the Mortlock portraits by Downman passed to Mrs Alice Mortlock, as well as a portrait of the Duchess of Rutland presented to John Mortlock III by the Duke, although the group portrait of the sisters together and a portrait of Sarah, Lady Lacon, went to the Lacons. The formal oils of John and his wife Elizabeth Mary Harrison went to Alice’s elder sister, Mary Blanche Lias, and were reproduced in Connoisseur magazine in December 1921 and December 1922. Reproductions of many of the others can be found in Connoisseur for July 1931.
New Hall New Hall, a women's college of Cambridge University, was founded here in Silver Street in 1954, with two tutors and sixteen students. In 1964 the College moved to its permanent home in Huntington Road. Location: Darwin College, Cambridge, CB3 9EU Expand Cambridge University made very slow progress in acknowledging the place of women in higher education and within its own work. Although two colleges for women, Newnham and Girton, were established by 1875, it was only by slow steps that women were allowed to attend University lectures, sit the exams, and teach within the University. Votes on admitting women to membership went against change. Finally, in 1947 the vote went the other way, and girls were no longer merely students of their respective colleges but also undergraduates of the University of Cambridge. There was then some pressure to expand the number of places for women, and in 1952 the Third Foundation Association was launched, soon changed its name to the New Hall Association, and set about organising and fund-raising for a new women’s college. As the latter can be a long process, the Association decided to take immediate action to make a start, even though on a limited scale. By April 1953 an Accommodation Sub-committee was visiting a large number of houses, looking for one suitable to become the first home of New Hall. Rosemary Murray, who in due course became the first President of New Hall, and the first woman Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge, says in her book, “The making of a College”: “The Hermitage was a large house in Silver Street owned by St. John’s College and rented to Miss Craigoe who used it as a Guest House. It first came to the attention of the Committee in April 1953 but was turned down as being rather smaller than was desirable and probably needing considerable expense to be put in working order. The price being asked for the sale of the remainder of the lease was also high. However, by negotiating for not only the lease but also for the furniture and equipment, much of which was suitable for housing undergraduates, agreement was reached with Miss Craigoe, and in September 1953 the remainder of the lease (till 1958), together with almost the whole of the contents of the house, was acquired.” The house had been given its name from the siting there of a medieval hermitage. It was the hermit’s responsibility to collect money from travellers to repair the causeway that led to the small bridges over the river. The later history of the house is mentioned in Gwen Raverat’s Period Piece. In 1954 the first 16 students were admitted, with Miss Murray as Tutor and one Fellow. The students were selected from those who had narrowly missed admission to Girton or Newnham Colleges that year. The intake for the following year was admitted through an entrance examination unique amongst the Colleges of Oxford and Cambridge, in that it consisted of a single three hour paper, during which candidates wrote three essays in answer to questions designed to test “logical thought and power of expression”. 415 candidates competing for 15 places took the first paper. At this time there were ten times as many men as women undergraduates in the University, and the number of women was limited by statute. For the first ten years the students and their Tutors lived in the borrowed buildings in Silver Street, while money was raised for the College’s own permanent buildings. By 1962, thanks to the generosity of members of the Darwin family who gave their family home, the Orchard, the College had its site. In 1965, New Hall was able to move to its permanent home on Castle Hill in strikingly modern buildings by Chamberlain, Powell, Bon (of the Barbican). In 1972 the College received its Royal Charter and became a full college of the University, while Rosemary Murray became its President. She was now eligible for election as Vice-Chancellor, and was elected at once, serving from 1975-77. In 1991 the College building was listed Grade II* by English Heritage, in the top 5% of English buildings, and at about the same time, under its second president, Dr Valerie Pearl, the College opened its Art Collection, the largest collection of works by women artists in the UK. In 1994, as a result of an Agreement with the Kaetsu Foundation of Tokyo, with which it has a continuing relationship, the College acquired fine new student accommodation and other facilities. In 2008 alumna Ros Edwards and her husband gave the college £30 million, and the name (‘temporary’ for over 50 years) was changed to Murray Edwards College.
Stephen Perse (1548 - 1615) He was a fellow of Gonville and Caius, physician, financier, and philanthropist. His will included a bequest of land for the establishment of what was then described as a Free Grammar School which later become the Perse Schools. Location: Free School Lane, Cambridge, CB2 3QA Expand Stephen Perse came to Cambridge in 1565, aged 17, to study at Gonville and Caius College. He was to remain in Cambridge for the rest of his life, engaged in both University and town affairs. He was successful enough to be made a Fellow of the College in 1571, and continued to study there, obtaining the degree of MD in 1581. As was customary, he was ordained, in 1573. Within his college and the University Perse undertook the usual offices, but particularly as college Bursar. It was in his affairs outside College that Perse attained his permanent memory and this Blue Plaque. He lived in stirring times, with a growing population nationally and an expanding economy, which nevertheless was by-passing many poorer people. Cambridge experienced this situation too, with cheap new housing and subdivided older houses being created to house immigrants from the countryside looking to better their fortunes in town. It was difficult for many of them to gain a toehold, and there was much unease in both the corporation and the University about the situation. Unusually for an academic, Perse was an engaged and astute man of business, involved in property dealing and money lending. Although neither sounds totally salubrious in a University setting, there was a need for both in the community, and Perse recognised this need. In the course of his dealings he enriched himself, but at his death was then able to leave much of his wealth to a number of good uses in the town, beside his bequests to his college. His scheme to provide loans to young businessmen did not take off, but other plans did. He left some sums towards the maintenance of the new Hobson’s Brook and of Newmarket Road (both essential to health and prosperity) but his major plan was the founding of a Grammar School and Almshouses. The school was to provide up to 100 free places for boys from Cambridge, Barnwell, Chesterton and Trumpington, and poor students were to have preference over rich. Successful pupils were to have preference in elections to Perse scholarships, and Perse Fellowships at Gonville and Caius. The school hall with its fine hammerbeam roof was completed in 1628 and now houses the principal displays of the Whipple Museum. Following moves in the nineteenth century, the School was established in Hills Road in 1888. The Girls’ School (now the Stephen Perse Foundation), in Panton Street, was founded in 1881. Both are successful Independent schools for pupils aged from 11 to 18, with departments for younger pupils. The Perse Alms-houses were originally built alongside the school, on the corner with Pembroke Street. They were to house six needy local people and to provide them with £4 a year. The alms-houses were rebuilt in the nineteenth century at Newnham, and are still in use. Stephen Perse was buried in Gonville and Caius College chapel, where his memorial may still be seen.
Enid Porter (1909 - 1984) She was the curator of the Cambridge & County Folk museum from 1947 to 1976, and a leading authority on Cambridgeshire culture, history, customs, stories and beliefs, and a pioneer of oral history. She said of the museum: 'It is the intimacy of it that I like, relating the objects to the role they played in people's lives and the customs they have played a part in'. Location: 1 Northampton St, Cambridge, CB3 0AD Expand The Cambridge & County Folk Museum was set up in 1936 at a time when people were becoming aware that social history could be as interesting as the history of kings and queens, statesmen and generals. Social history that was deeply rooted in a locality with a distinctive environment and way of life, especially when that way of life was seen to be disappearing, had a special attraction. No doubt the motivation was often sentimental and romantic. Amateur collectors and enthusiasts held the field. In Britain folklorists journeyed to the remoter fringes of the country, to Wales and the Western Highlands, to record the language and customs that were dying out through contact with the modern world. The first folk museums were mainly in the uplands. But the founders of the Cambridge & County Folk Museum recognised that even in villages within an hour’s train journey from London, even in a town as cosmopolitan as Cambridge itself, distinctive traditions of living still survived. Cambridge memories and experiences were with Miss Porter from her earliest days. Although she was born and brought up in Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex, both her parents knew Cambridge very well. Her mother was from an old Cambridge family, and Enid paid visits to the family (‘numerous relations, who seemed to constitute half the population of Cambridge’) twice a year through her childhood, until she eventually came to live here herself. Her father, born in Bedford, had been a Non-collegiate student at Cambridge University. As such he would have lodged economically in the town, and he was one of the students who learnt the teacher’s craft by teaching in the Higher Grade School, Paradise Street, at the same time as studying for his degree. He would have learnt a lot about life in the poorer end of Cambridge at that time. Her father became a teacher at Southend High School, and aimed for the same sort of career for his daughter. Enid took a Modern Languages degree at University College London, and after training, took a post at a girls’ boarding school. It was not her own choice. She would have preferred, she said, at that time, to be a librarian. But that perhaps was because she could not envisage the career in which she was to be so successful. As a child, on visits to Cambridge, she had liked to wander in antique shops, wondering where the objects had come from and who had used them. She continued teaching through the war, and had a post at a training college, before her summer visit to Cambridge in 1947 brought to her notice an advertisement for a post at the Cambridge and County Folk Museum. Her family thought it would be ‘nice’ for her to be in Cambridge, but she must have seen immediately the fulfilment of her childhood imaginings. She began work that September, living in 3 Castle Hill, adjoining the four rooms in no.2 that constituted the Museum. She was to stay until her retirement in 1976. The museum collections even when she started were substantial, and she added to them sagaciously throughout her tenure. She also undertook scholarly research into the context to which they belonged. Her research took every form, from trawling through publications, archives, diaries and newspapers, to the active recording of stories told by a number of elderly fenmen – a neglected repository of local story-telling that is as vivid as any in its imagery and turn of phrase. She would take down their words verbatim in a notebook or commit them to memory for writing up later. One of her principal sources both of fenland tales and folklore was W.H.Barrett. The stories he wrote down in longhand were carefully typed up by Enid Porter and published often with only the slightest emendations. Barrett drew on childhood memories of illiterate storytellers who carried tales originating in the eighteenth century and earlier. The humour of these stories was robust and allegiance to the sober truth was not regarded as a strict necessity. For nearly thirty years she worked ceaselessly, caring for the Museum, cleaning it, expanding it and exploring the traditional life of Cambridge and the Fens, which its collection represented. She travelled around the Fens to meet people and take down their stories of fen life and fen traditions, as well as learning all she could of Cambridge history. She also gave many, many talks to local groups, which further encouraged people to volunteer their memories. The results were published in booklets and articles, very widely appreciated, culminating in her Cambridgeshire Customs and Folklore published in 1969. The previous year the Folklore Society had awarded her their prestigious Coote-Lake Medal in recognition of her work. By 1961 the Museum had expanded into no.3 Castle Street and Miss Porter had been provided with a small house built in the courtyard of the Museum. Her work had increased not only the size of the collection but the number of visitors, up from 2,330 in 1947 to 7,000 in 1968, and she had to be in the Museum, to hand out tickets, alongside all her curatorial duties. In 1975 she published Victorian Cambridge, drawn from the diaries of Josiah Chater that are held by the Museum. Like Customs this remains the definitive work in this area and is immensely valuable. In 1972 she was awarded an Honorary MA by Cambridge University in recognition of her work, followed in 1981, after her retirement, by the same degree from the Open University. It was recorded that her work reflected the objective of the OU in ‘promoting the educational wellbeing of the community generally’ with a cheerful, humorous and lively personality. During her lifetime she was for many the principal authority on Cambridge and Fenland history, and her work in the Museum and in her publications is still in use today.
Clara Dorothea Rackham (1875-1966) Campaigner for adult and child education. A suffragist, magistrate and penal reformer. Founder of the Cambridge Cooperative Women's Guild. A City and County Councillor. Plaque located at 9 Park Terrace Cambridge, where she lived. Expand Clara Rackham studied Classics at Newnham College Cambridge (1895-98). She married the scholar Harris Rackham, brother of the illustrator Arthur Rackham, in 1901. Clara believed strongly in co-operative ideals and founded the Cambridge Co-operative Women’s Guild in 1902. She chaired the Eastern Federation of the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies, led by Millicent Garrett Fawcett, and served on the national executive committee. One of a handful of women appointed as government factory inspectors during the First World War, she became a nationally respected authority on factory legislation and an early advocate of the 40-hour working week. After the war Clara was elected as a Labour councillor for Romsey, a ward containing many railway workers’ families. Her name became synonymous with enlightened local government and she served as a city councillor for 28 years, a county councillor for 38, and as vice-chairman of Cambridge County Council from 1956-58. There was hardly a progressive cause, organisation or initiative in the city to which she did not give her time and support including the establishment of the first family planning clinic, the Rock Road Library, and the heated swimming pool on Parker’s Piece. Clara was among Cambridge’s first women magistrates and a lifelong supporter of the Howard League for Penal Reform. She was chairman of the County Council Education Committee (1945-57) and fought innumerable battles to expand educational opportunities for adults in her roles as a governor of the Cambridgeshire College or Arts, Crafts and Technology and as chairman of the Eastern District of the Workers’ Educational Association. Clara greatly valued her own education at Newnham College and served on the college council from 1924-31 and on the governing body from 1920-40. Loss of hearing eventually forced her to relinquish committee work but she remained a much-loved and easily recognisable figure in her final years, still cycling around Cambridge, taking an interest in her many friends, charities and voluntary organisations, and conversing happily with young and old alike. Clara Rackham died peacefully in Langdon House residential home at the age of 90. ‘Anyone who studies the social reforms of the century in Cambridge will see how much they owe to Mrs Rackham's devoted and unstinting championship of the under-privileged. Her aim was to give them a better way of life. Her success is her memorial’. From the Newnham College Roll, 1967 A commemorative blue plaque to Clara was erected in January 2019 on the gatepost outside 9 Park Terrace, Cambridge where she once lived. We are grateful to Professor Mary Joannou for nominating Clara Rackham for a blue plaque, for helping to bring this to fruition and for this biography. We could not have created Clara’s blue plaque without the financial donations from Paul Soper & Nyasha Gwatidzo, Greenwich Leisure (Parkers Piece pool), Anne Wright, Sarah Rackham, Viv Peto and Mary Joannnou to whom we are incredibly grateful. We are also grateful to Newnham College for their help in organising a commemorative event for Clara at the college in November 2018 and to Emmanuel College for agreeing to the plaque being installed on one of their properties.
Gwen Raverat (1885 - 1957) She was an artist, illustrator, wood engraver, and at the age of 62, started to write her classic childhood memoir 'Period Piece: A Cambridge Childhood'. She was the granddaughter of the naturalist Charles Darwin, and was born and died here at Newham Grange, the Darwin family home, now part of Darwin College. Location: Darwin College, Cambridge, CB3 9EU Expand We owe the most charming and engaging account of Cambridge society to Gwen Raverat. In her Period Piece: a Cambridge childhood she describes affectionately her corner of Cambridge around 1900: life in Newnham Grange as the daughter of a noted academic, and the formalities and eccentricities of Cambridge society and of the Darwin family. Her father was George Darwin, second son of Charles Darwin, fellow of Trinity College, and Professor of Astronomy. Her mother Maud was from America. George Darwin and his brothers belonged to the first generation of college fellows who were permitted to marry while retaining their fellowships, thus giving rise to a whole new section of Cambridge society: the academic family. George Darwin bought the house in Silver Street, which formerly belonged to the Beale family, proprietors of a corn and coal business on the river. He renamed it Newnham Grange and amongst other alterations added the distinctive bay windows to the front. His brothers Francis and Horace also settled in Cambridge, on the Huntingdon Road, and their families were part of the world described by Gwen Raverat. She and her brothers and sister would play on the river outside their house, be taken on excursions up-river past the bathing places where boys bathed naked and women in rowing boats had to bury their eyes in their parasols. They rode early bicycles and tricycles, and saw the crossing sweepers who swept the roads so that gentlefolk could cross with clean shoes. They observed the formalities of Victorian society with the penetrating eyes of children, and that clear-eyed vision is set before us in Period Piece. Gwen drew and painted from childhood, keeping a little sketchbook in her pocket, and studying any reproductions of artists that came her way. Rembrandt and Bewick (the engraver) enthralled her. After a conventional education she persuaded her family to let her go to London to study at the Slade School of Art. Here she developed her interest in woodcuts and wood-engraving, at the time, neglected art forms, and in a few years she became one of the founding members of the Society of Wood-Engravers. Her circle of Cambridge friends included the Keyneses, Rupert Brooke and others with literary and artistic interests. In this group she met Jacques Raverat, also developing as an artist, whom she married in 1911. They worked, separately and together, on paintings and Gwen’s woodcuts. Their two daughters were both born in Newnham Grange. Jacques’ illness (undiagnosed multiple sclerosis) became more severe, and they moved to the south of France, continuing to paint as much as they could. Gwen, with great fortitude, nursed her husband through the traumatic last stages of his illness to his death in 1925. Afterwards, she returned to England and from 1929 lived in Harlton, just six miles from Cambridge. From there she could resume her Cambridge connections, while continuing to work. Her reputation grew steadily as she exhibited work in Cambridge and London and produced illustrations and revues for Time and Tide. She was commissioned to illustrate a variety of books, but also painted and undertook some scene painting for the ADC theatre. At the instigation of Geoffrey Keynes, her brother-in-law, she designed sets and costumes based on the work of William Blake for a ballet (ultimately called Job, a Masque for Dancing) for which her cousin Ralph Vaughan Williams wrote the music and Maynard Keynes financed London performances. In the Second World War she worked briefly at the Cambridge Instrument Factory (founded by her uncle Horace) but then found greater use for her talents in drawing interpretations of coasts and landscapes for use by the Navy. In 1946 she returned to her childhood home. The old granary in whose empty lofts she had played as a child had been converted to flats, but her move was delayed by the reluctance of another Cambridge notable, Henry Morris (Education chief and founder of the Village Colleges, blue plaque on the Granary), to move out of this picturesque residence. Gwen finally moved in, next door to her brother Sir Charles, who had inherited the main house. In 1950 - 51 she wrote Period Piece, recording the charm and eccentricities of the Darwin family and the conventions and customs of her youth, which even in 1950 seemed to belong to a lost world, wiped out by two world wars. The drawings that illustrate it, though seemingly very simple, capture and convey the mood she describes. Her book was an immediate success, has gone through many, many printings and is as popular as ever. Although suffering the effects of a stroke in 1951, Gwen continued to paint, and was a familiar figure in the neighbourhood. She would sit out in the nearby commons; painting the scenes she had known since childhood. She died in 1957 and was buried beside her parents in the Trumpington Extension Cemetery. Her brother Charles died in 1962, ending the Darwin family’s occupation of Newnham Grange. Not long afterwards, the bursars of three Cambridge colleges, sharing a train journey to London, came up with the idea of creating a new graduate college, and set about acquiring Newnham Grange to house it. Darwin College was formally incorporated in 1965.
Birthplace of the Reformation Site of the White Horse Inn, also known as 'Little Germany', where Cambridge scholars debated the works of Martin Luther in the early sixteenth century. The Inn at Trumpington St was the birthplace of The English Reformation. Location: King's Parade, Cambridge, CB2 1SJ Expand Cambridge has always been well supplied with drinking places, and although the University has preferred students to stay in their colleges to enjoy their alcohol, scholars have always found occasions to meet outside, in the town’s pubs. Back in the sixteenth century, the White Horse stood in Trumpington Street, with a narrow frontage, in the row of timber-framed houses and shops, but extending back down the narrow Plots Lane, facing the boundary wall of King’s College. The inn was a discrete distance from the hub of the University at Old Schools, and from the busier taverns around the market. In 1517 in Germany the theologian Dr Martin Luther challenged certain teaching and doctrines of the Church: it did not take long for his radical ideas and writings to spread to other academics across Europe. In May 1521 the University authorities in Cambridge were instructed to confiscate and burn the reformer's books as heretical. There was great danger in being seen to agree with Luther’s ideas, but nevertheless his works were still discussed. In the early 1520s a group of enthusiasts began to meet in the White Horse Inn, to turn over these ideas that were rocking the Continent. Despite the dangers, the White Horse group persisted, and the inn was nicknamed ‘Little Germany’ on their account. Amongst the participants were Robert Barnes, the head of the Austin Friary (just up St Bene’t’s Street opposite), ‘little’ Thomas Bilney of Trinity Hall and Hugh Latimer of Clare College. Barnes had studied abroad at Louvain, where Erasmus and the continental reformers influenced him. There he became a Doctor of Divinity and returned to England in 1523 to become the Prior and Master of the Austin community here in Cambridge. Bilney had been converted to reformed views in 1519 as a result of studying the Latin New Testament of Erasmus. (Erasmus had lived and taught Greek for a while in Cambridge.) Bilney then converted the older Latimer in 1524. Contemporaries remarked on the humorous sight of the tiny Bilney and the tall lean Latimer pacing through Cambridge market together in earnest theological discussion. Discussions in the White Horse transferred to sermons in St Edward’s church, across the road, where Latimer was in charge. (The church was and is a ‘peculiar’ – outside the authority of the Bishop.) On Christmas Eve 1525 Barnes exchanged pulpits with Latimer and preached at St. Edward's, an attack on the Church hierarchy. A few years later Latimer preached the famous Sermon on the Cards, attacking Cardinal Wolsey and the failings of the Church. The little pulpit in St Edwards, with its beautiful linen fold panels, is reputed to have been used by Latimer at this time. All three men eventually died for their faith (as did many other Cambridge alumni, on both sides of the religious divide): Bilney in 1531, Barnes in 1540 and Latimer in 1555. As part of his final statement, Barnes exclaimed, "I trust in no good work that I ever did, but only in the death of Christ. I do not doubt but through Him to enter the kingdom of heaven." His words were recorded and soon printed both in England and in Germany where Luther gave his own tribute to Barnes whom he described as, "This holy martyr, saint Robert." The Inn building survived until 1869 when it was finally demolished. The long-delayed buildings of King’s College arose on the other side of the lane, and in 1968 covered it completely with the Keynes Lecture Theatre.
Sir Charles Villiers Stanford (1852 - 1924) He was a composer, organist, and conductor. In 1887 he was appointed professor of music at Cambridge University, and lived in Harvey Road from 1884 to 1893. Location: 10 Harvey Road, Cambridge, CB1 2ET Expand https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Villiers_Stanford
Alan Turing (1912 - 1954) He was a mathematician, computer pioneer and code breaker. Some of his best-known work was carried out during the Second World War, when he worked for the Government Code and Cypher School at Bletchley Park. Location: 58 Trumpington St, Cambridge, CB2 1RH Expand https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Turing
Elsie Widdowson (1906 - 2000) She was a pioneer nutrition scientist who developed and tested wartime rations with bread made in the bakery in the village of Barrington where she lived. Location of plaque: 55 High Street, Barrington (next to the village shop). Expand “You can, if you have to, live on a very simple diet”, Elsie Widdowson said, and said it often. She worked out that bread, green vegetables, and potatoes contained all the nutrients for healthy survival. Elsie was one of the most outstanding scientists of the twentieth century. Indeed, the fact that she and a handful of her female contemporaries were so influential, significantly advanced the cause of women in science. She was born in Dulwich, London in 1906 and moved to Orchard House in Barrington, Cambridgeshire in 1938. She was a pioneer in nutrition science, adored by all who knew her and much admired by all who have valued her work. Elsie gained her BSc and PhD at Imperial College, London, in chemistry. In a pivotal moment in 1933, Elsie met Robert McCance in the kitchens of Kings College Hospital, London and was brave enough to tell him that his values for the sugars in apples were too low. This inauspicious start led to a scientific partnership that was to last until McCance's death in 1993. Among many other things, it helped shape wartime rationing and the standard loaf, revealed the damage poor childhood nutrition does to adult health, contributed to our understanding of mineral metabolism, and provided the core values for almost every nutritional database in use in the world today. What started as Elsie’s idea during a family outing to Box Hill, Surrey in 1934, culminated in the “bible” now known as McCance and Widdowson’s Composition of Foods. This is a resource, regularly updated, which no nutrition department or food company can be without and it is an achievement in which British science has led the way. (Photo: Elsie in Barrington in 1990s. With kind permission of Dr Margaret Ashwell OBE). The pair moved to the Department of Experimental Medicine in Cambridge in 1938. During the first months of the war in 1939, they felt they must do something to further the war effort. Keen to prove the adequacy of potentially drastic wartime rations, they and a number of their colleagues ate bread and very little else. Then, to test their fitness following this bleak regime, they went on a rigorous course of cycling and mountain climbing in the Lake District. These studies also led to important changes in the formulation of the wartime National wheatmeal loaf, and ultimately the standard white loaf, in particular their fortification with calcium. Elsie was one example of Britain's wartime luck, like having other brainy people who found ways of breaking the enemy's military codes. Elsie was extremely proud to be awarded her Fellowship of the Royal Society in 1976, closely followed by her CBE in 1979. She became one of Britain’s most famous scientists when she was made a Companion of Honour in 1993. Living in her thatched cottage on the River Cam with her cats for company, growing fruit (including apples, of course) and vegetables, she remained scientifically productive until her death, at the age of 93, in 2000. Reporters inevitably asked her for the secret of her long and energetic life. Was it to do with diet? She said she had simply inherited good genes from her parents. Her father had lived to 96 and her mother to 107. As for her diet, she ate butter and eggs, but also ate plenty of vegetables and fruit, and drank lots of water. And ate lots of bread, of course. For more information: Ashwell, M. ed., McCance and Widdowson: a scientific partnership of 60 years, 1933–1993 British Nutrition Foundation, 1993 Click on this link to hear Great Lives with Helen Sharman and Dr Margaret Ashwell: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b092mbm2 Children might enjoy watching Absolute Genius about Elsie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFsIHG_7Ir4 PHOTO L-R: Penny Heath (CambridgePPF Blue Plaque Committee), Dr Margaret Ashwell OBE (friend and biographer), Jill Jones (Chair of Barrington Society), Kate Wootton (resident of the house where the plaque will be placed). Thank you We are grateful to Dr Margaret Ashwell OBE RNutr FafN (Elsie’s friend, colleague and biographer) for nominating Elsie Widdowson for a blue plaque, for helping to bring this to fruition and for drafting her biography. The Blue Plaque to Elsie Widdowson has been financed by the Nutrition Society, the British Dietetic Association, the British Nutrition Foundation, and the Royal Society. The commemorative blue plaque to Elsie is placed on the wall of the house adjoining the shop in Barrington. This used to be the village bakery which made the bread for all of Elsie’s studies. We are grateful to the owners for allowing the plaque to be installed. An unveiling event took place on 27 June 2021 in Barrington village to commemorate Elsie and her work. We are grateful to those who helped to organise and support this event including the Barrington Society, Miss Helen Fernandes for hospitality at Barrington Hall, M M Wealth Management Cambridge, Stuart Barker of Barker Brothers Butchers in Great Shelford, Bread Source from Norwich for providing samples of a National Loaf and Barrington Parish Council.
William Wilkins (1778 - 1839) He was an architect. He designed Downing College and the stone screen at King's College, known as the Wilkins' screen. On the site stood his home, Lensfield, which he designed and built. Location: 44 Lensfield Road, Cambridge, CB2 1EH Expand William Wilkins Junior was one of the foremost architects of the purest phase of the Greek Revival, which was fashionable in Britain in the latter part of the C18 and first half of the C19. The style sought to reproduce Classical forms and was ideally suited to the period after the Battle of Waterloo when numerous monumental buildings were erected throughout the country. Although the Greek Revival was a relatively short-lived architectural trend, it left a legacy of sober, dignified buildings of which Wilkins’ Downing College is one of the nation’s best examples. Wilkins was born in St Giles, Norwich on 31 August 1739. His father, also William, was, amongst other things, a self-taught architect who had initially followed his father’s trade of plasterer and worked with some of the leading architects of his generation. He also built and managed a string of theatres, of which the Cambridge theatre in Newmarket road was one. In 1780, the Wilkins family moved to Cambridge so that his father could develop his business. They lived at first next to the Theatre and then at Newnham Cottage, on Queen’s Road. Wilkins senior was quick to teach his eldest son and in 1800 the younger William graduated after reading mathematics at Gonville and Caius College. In the following year he won a travelling scholarship, which gave him the opportunity to travel through Italy, Greece and Asia Minor. Such ‘Grand Tours’ were seen as an essential part of the architect’s training at the time and the influence on Wilkins’ later building designs was obvious. Wilkins returned to Cambridge in the summer of 1803 having been elected a fellow of Gonville and Caius and he began work on his first serious publication Magna Graecia. In the following year he was appointed Master of the Perse School, a post that he held until 1806. In March 1806, Wilkins beat James Wyatt in a competition to design a new Cambridge College, to be built with a bequest from Sir George Downing. Thomas Hope, a wealthy enthusiastic amateur architect produced a pamphlet urging the adoption of the Greek style for Downing. Wilkins, who seems to have been in regular contact with Hope, duly obliged and the College is amongst his most scholarly Classical designs and one of the first ‘campus-style’ educational buildings in the country. The Ionic Order he used was based on the Erechtheum in Athens and such faithful Classical reproductions would be a feature of many of his commissions from Haileybury College (1806) and Grange Park (1809) right up to his later commissions in the capital such as the St George’s Hospital (1827) and the University College (1827-8). Wilkins had married in 1811 and consequently re-fashioned a large house named Lensfield on the edge of Cambridge’s historic centre. Perhaps not surprisingly he added a Greek Doric porch. Wilkins lived in the house until his death in 1839 though unfortunately the house was demolished in the 1950s to allow for the construction of the University’s Chemistry Faculty. The Blue Plaque to William Wilkins is attached close to the building’s north-west corner. Wilkins’ father had leased Norwich Theatre and rebuilt the theatre in Colchester in 1810. In 1814, the year before his father’s death, Wilkins helped him rebuild the old wooden theatre in Barnwell in Cambridge. Whilst the new exterior was plain, the inside was lavish with tiers of stalls in a horseshoe pattern and a proscenium arch with images of Apollo and Minerva. When Wilkins Senior died in 1815, he left his son the management of the Theatre Royal in Norwich together with a controlling interest in the theatres at Yarmouth, Bury St Edmunds, Ipswich, Colchester and Cambridge. Wilkins’ career flourished and he was responsible for a number of churches, country houses, public buildings and monuments from Cornwall to Scotland and Yarmouth to Dublin. Despite also having a house in London, he was very active in Cambridge. The buildings at Downing occupied him until at least 1820, and he also designed a new bridge at King’s College in 1818, New Court at Trinity from 1821-3 and New Court at Corpus Christi from 1823-7. Although the King’s College bridge adapted the Greek Ionic style used at Downing College, his later buildings were all Gothic. Like the majority of architects of his generation, Wilkins was less comfortable designing in the Gothic style and such buildings of this period are often repetitive and symmetrical, based on Classical precedents. Despite this, his highly picturesque screen and Porters’ Lodge at King’s College (built 1822-4) remains one of the most endearing and most photographed images of Cambridge. In common with his contemporaries, Wilkins frequently had to attempt to win commissions through often ill-managed architectural competitions. His success in the competition for the design of the combined National Gallery and Royal Academy in London 1832 should have been the highpoint of his career. His design however, although executed in his favourite Greek revival style, was highly repetitive for such a large building and demonstrated that he was finding it hard to adapt to the freer and more ornamental Classical forms which the Victorian age would shortly demand. By the 1830s the best years of his career were over and a new generation of architects was better suited to adapt to the changing architectural scene. Almost simultaneously his theatrical business collapsed and sickness caused by gout and a kidney disease left him weak. Sixty-one years to the day after his birth, Wilkins died at Lensfield, surrounded by his family. He was buried in the Chapel of Corpus Christi College, his favourite of all his Cambridge buildings. William Wilkins was perhaps the principal exponent of the Greek Revival during early C19 Britain. It is in his adopted hometown of Cambridge that his legacy can be best appreciated however. The dignified austerity of Downing College and the picturesque Gothic of the King’s College screen are two of the architectural gems in a city of riches. Both demonstrate an attention to scholarly detail befitting a university town and continue to enrich the lives of townsfolk and visitors alike.
Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889 - 1951) He was a philosopher, engineer, architect, and artist; he lived here at 76 Storey's Way. 'Do not agree with me in particular opinions but investigate the matter in the right way. To notice the interesting things ... that serve as keys if you use them properly.' Location: 76 Storey's Way, Cambridge, CB3 0DX Expand https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludwig_Wittgenstein
Sir Frank Whittle (1907 - 1996) He was a jet propulsion pioneer, pursuing the development of his jet engine at the Cambridge University Department of Engineering. Location: Cambridge University Engineering Department, Trumpington St, Cambridge, CB2 1QA Expand Born in Coventry, the son of a factory foreman, at 16 Frank Whittle joined the RAF as an aircraft apprentice. His developing talents were recognised, and three years later he was selected for officer and pilot training. While training at Cranwell, he had the first germ of the idea of jet propulsion. He developed the concept sufficiently over the next few years to obtain a patent in 1932, but the Air Ministry was not interested in taking up the idea. Nevertheless, the RAF did think it worthwhile to send Flight Lieutenant Whittle to study Engineering at Cambridge as a mature student. In 1934 he entered Peterhouse, but as he had married in 1930, lived with his family in Harston Road, Trumpington. He completed a three year Mechanical Science Tripos degree in only two years, gaining a first. In the Engineering Department he found more encouragement for the development of a jet engine, from his tutor and from Melvill Jones the Head of Aeronautical Engineering. He also met two former RAF officers, R.D. Williams and J.C.B. Tinling who were enthusiastic and with their cooperation formed a company called Power Jets, with the aim of taking his idea for the development of jet engines further. The RAF agreed to let Frank remain at Cambridge for a further post graduate year, to continue working on his idea. Power Jets Ltd was set up in 1936 by Whittle and his colleagues in a factory in Rugby. There were many difficulties, including turbine blade failure, which was overcome by the development of a high nickel alloy by Mond Nickel, called Nimonic 60. Testing of the prototype engines (1937-41) was dominated by problems with combustion. Sir William Hawthorne, who was later to become the Head of the Engineering Department at Cambridge, helped to solve these. In 1939 the Air Ministry's Director of Scientific Research finally acknowledged that Whittle's ideas were feasible. Power Jets was awarded a contract to develop a flight engine, the W1. The first of Whittle's test jet engines took to the skies on 15 May 1941, powering an aircraft that had been specifically designed for the purpose: the Gloster E28/39. This aircraft was conceived and built in only 15 months. Take-off for the test flight, with pilot Gerry Sayer at the controls, took place at RAF Cranwell at 7.45pm, and lasted 17 min, having achieved speeds of over 500mph. The plane used can now be seen at the Science Museum, where it has been on display since 1946. A second aircraft powered using the same type of engine was demonstrated to Winston Churchill on 17 April, 1943. After the war Power Jets was nationalised and responsibility for development of the jet engine was passed to Rolls Royce, Armstrong Siddeley and American manufacturers.Frank Whittle was invalided out of the RAF in 1948 and in the same year knighted for his achievements. He thought of his time at Cambridge with great affection and donated all of his papers to the Churchill Archives Centre shortly before he died in 1996. The jet engine has gone on, not only to revolutionise air travel, but also to play an important part in gas turbines for the propulsion of ships. The principles of the jet engine are also used in the electricity generation industry. The Whittle Laboratory, on the West Cambridge site, was named after Sir Frank in 1972 and is dedicated to the study of the aerodynamics of turbines. The Engineering Department has grown and flourished, and now has around 1100 undergraduates and 600 post-graduate students and researchers. In 2001 the Sir Arthur Marshall Institute for Aeronautics (SAMIA) was formed, as a result of a close collaboration between the University of Cambridge Engineering Department and Marshall Aerospace. Its aim is to maintain the University Department at the forefront of aerospace engineering, including safety, noise minimisation, the economy, the environment and technological advance. SAMIA is a virtual institute within the Engineering Department at Cambridge, headed by the Francis Mond Professor of Aeronautical Engineering.Ian Whittle said: "My father said inventing the jet engine was easy. Making it work was the difficult bit!"
Chief Executive James Littlewood Expand James provides leadership of the charity, driving its strategic direction and achievement of its charitable objectives. He has delegated authority for day-day running of the charity and reports to the Board of Trustees. James works full-time and can be contacted at [email protected] or 01223 243830.
Head of Finance & Operations and Company Secretary Ceri Littlechild Expand Ceri is responsible for day-to-day management of the charity’s finances, HR, office and IT functions. Through our Land Agent, she is also responsible for the repairs to investment properties and their letting. As Company Secretary she is responsible for servicing meetings of the Board of Trustees, Finance Committee and AGM, production of trustees’ annual report and ensuring returns to Charity Commission and Companies House. Ceri works part-time (Mon, Tues, Wed and every other Thursday) and can be contacted at [email protected]or 01223 243830.
Estate Manager Ed Wombwell Expand Our Estate Manager, Ed Wombwell is responsible for the day-to-day management of Wandlebury Country Park, Coton Countryside Reserve, Bourn Windmill, Hinxton Watermill, Leper Chapel and other Cambridge Past, Present & Future managed green spaces. Ed works full-time. He can be contacted at [email protected] or 07852 417526.
Principal Planning Officer Sarah Nicholas Expand Sarah is our Principal Planning Officer and she works with and supports our Planning Committee, Heritage Watch Group and other relevant individuals, organisations and partnerships to influence the planning and development of greater Cambridge. She can be contacted at [email protected] or 01223 243830 ext 206.
Fundraising Manager Rachel French Expand Rachel looks after fundraising for the charity and is always happy to hear from members, donors, patrons and legators. If you would like to discuss your giving, please get in touch. She works Monday to Wednesday and can be contacted at [email protected] or 01223 243830.
Education & Events Co-ordinator and Admin Officer Nicola McLaughlin Expand Nicola organises events, school visits and manages all venue and private bookings. She also supports the day to day running of the office at Cambridge Past, Present & Future, leads membership administration and helps visitors with their enquiries. Nicola works full-time and can be contacted at [email protected] or 01223 243830.
Warden Team James Allsop, Hannah Warren, Thev Cram & Jess Norris Expand Our team of wardens is responsible for carrying out day-day operations relating to visitor and habitat management of Wandlebury Country Park, Coton Countryside Reserve and the other sites owned and managed by Cambridge Past, Present & Future. Wardens are full-time, part-time and seasonal. You can contact them at [email protected] or 01223 243830.