Lost Cambridge

Please support my research as my costs have unexpectedly gone up. Click on the Donate button below.

Summary Julia Kennedy and Rosamund Philpott were the first women to stand for election to what is now Cambridge City Council – Parliament having recently removed the ban on women standing for election to local councils. On Friday 16 October 1908 the great and the good of Cambridge wrote a letter to the Cambridge Independent … More Julia Kennedy stands for election

Summary Asking why so few books about Cambridge’s civic history exist dating from beyond the 1950s – and why trying to fill in the gaps is an incredibly huge task that no one person can complete alone. I seem to have hit my first big lump of ‘historian’s block’ (if there is such a thing) … More Does Cambridge’s civic history stop in the 1950s?

Summary A predecessor of Florence Ada Keynes who praised her work, Ellice went into the slums of Cambridge some 30 years before Eglantyne Jebb did, but for different reasons. Yet the former came to similar conclusions that the latter did. I only found out about Ellice because Florence wrote about her. Fortunately one of the … More Ellice Hopkins – work amongst working men of Cambridge

Summary Transcript from another blurred entry on the British Newspaper Archive (£). Language, style and historical notes: Politically-partisan – The Cambridge Independent was – in their words “The only liberal-supporting newspaper in Cambridge” – other newspapers tending to be Conservative-leaning. “Mr Asquith” – The Prime Minister of the Liberal Government of the day. “The Veto” is … More Did ‘Votes for women’ cost Liberals the Cambridge seat in the Jan 1910 election?

Summary At the launch of the new Cambridge women’s branch of the Young Liberals’ League – who elected Eglantyne Jebb as their first president. Hero: Eglantyne Jebb – founder of Save the Children, who was a very prominent local political activist between 1908-1913 in Cambridge.  Transcript of ‘Active Lady Liberals’ – an article in the Cambridge … More Active Lady Liberals in Cambridge 1910

Summary A possible story featuring four of Cambridge’s mythical creatures? Only today I noticed these two creatures perched beside the clock over the Guildhall. I was in Market Square and noticed there was something by the clock but couldn’t make out what it was until I turned a powerful optical zoom lens onto it. ‘Dawn … More How Dawn, Dusk and Puffles saved time from the wicked Chronophage

Summary Newspaper archives show that Eglantyne Jebb, the founder of Save the Children and the author of the Geneva Declaration on the Rights of the Child, was a very prominent campaigner for the Cambridge liberals – becoming the inaugural President of Cambridge Young Liberal Women in 1913. Archivists say that the best finds are in … More Eglantyne Jebb the political activist for the Cambridge Liberals

Summary On why we didn’t get the grand law courts of 1956 I was browsing through the microfiches of the very old editions of the Cambridge Independent Press in the Cambridgeshire Collection (3rd fl of Cambridge Central Library)  at the weekend and stumbled across proposals for some new courts at Shire Hall. Now, as post-war architecture … More The Castle Hill Folly – Cambridge’s unbuilt law courts

Summary: On how Florence Ada Keynes, Mary Paley Marshall and the Cambridge Ladies Discussion Society transformed Cambridge  Before I start, I couldn’t have written this project without the help of the archivists at the Cambridgeshire County Archive. So if the story interests you, please: Donate to the library service because politicians are continually cutting their budgets … More Florence and the machine – in Cambridge