Clara Rackham

9 Park Terrace, Cambridge

History of 9 Park Terrace

1913 Kellys

Mrs E Fellowes

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1924

Clara Rackham née Tabor moved here with her husband Harris Rackham in 1924. They had previously lived at 18 Hobson Street.

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1926

Leah Manning recalls in her autobiography ( Leah Manning, A Life for Education, London: Victor Gollancz, 1970) the activity at Park Terrace during the General Strike:

Clara Rackham’s House as Strike Headquarters
The most important evidence in Manning’s account is her statement that the Cambridge strike organisation was based in the Rackhams’ home:

“In Cambridge we set up a General Strike Committee: it met in Clara Rackham’s basement kitchen.”

This establishes that the house at Park Terrace functioned as the operational centre of strike activity in Cambridge. Manning’s description suggests a busy and informal headquarters rather than a formal committee room. Activists gathered each evening to organise communications, discuss developments and plan local activities. The setting itself is significant: a domestic space became the centre of local political action during a national crisis.

Manning recalls the meetings with obvious affection. She describes the basement kitchen as being full of conversation and activity, remembering:

“lively, exhilarating talk”

The meetings brought together Labour activists, trade unionists and supporters who worked late into the evening organising local responses to events as they unfolded.

Food and hospitality formed part of the experience. Manning specifically remembers the atmosphere of the kitchen and the smell of refreshments being prepared for those involved. The meetings were therefore not simply administrative gatherings but social and political occasions that reinforced solidarity among participants.

One of the principal activities undertaken at the house was the preparation of the local Strike Bulletin.

Manning describes evenings spent producing material for circulation around Cambridge. The bulletin was rolled, organised and prepared for delivery by volunteers. This work connected Cambridge activists with the wider national strike movement and provided a means of communication outside the mainstream press.

Perhaps the most surprising aspect of the account is Manning’s description of undergraduate involvement.

She writes:

“Undergraduates worked with us all the evening, rolling and preparing for delivery the Strike Bulletin…”

This is one of the most important pieces of evidence in the chapter because it demonstrates that some Cambridge students actively assisted the strike committee.

Manning then recalls the students:

“…sprinting off across Parker’s Piece in all directions to avoid being ‘gated’.”

The image is vivid and memorable. It suggests students carrying strike literature across Cambridge late at night before returning to college. It also demonstrates that student opinion was more diverse than the contemporary newspaper coverage implies.

Although Manning does not present Rackham as making long speeches or dominating proceedings, she clearly depicts her as an indispensable organiser.

The decision to make her home available to the strike committee was itself an important act of support. Manning’s account suggests that Rackham provided not merely accommodation but leadership, encouragement and practical assistance. The house became a place where different strands of the Cambridge labour movement could meet and coordinate their activities.

The significance of these passages lies in what they reveal about Cambridge during the strike.

The newspapers you found focus overwhelmingly on student volunteers working on railways, docks and transport services. Manning’s recollections reveal another Cambridge: one centred on Clara Rackham’s kitchen, the production of strike literature, meetings of activists, and cooperation between Labour supporters and at least some sympathetic undergraduates.

Taken together, the evidence suggests that the house at 9 Park Terrace was one of the most important local centres of General Strike activity in Cambridge. Manning’s recollections provide the clearest surviving account of what happened there and offer a rare glimpse into the everyday organisation of the strike at a local level.

Cambridge and the General Strike: Insights from Katherine Pateman’s Dissertation
One of the most detailed studies of the 1926 General Strike in Cambridge is Katherine Pateman’s BA (Hons) dissertation “Cambridge and the General Strike” (held in the Cambridgeshire Collection undated).  It is an important account of how the national dispute was experienced in a town dominated by the University rather than heavy industry.

Pateman argues that Cambridge presents a striking contrast to the industrial centres usually associated with the General Strike. While much of the town remained relatively calm and daily life continued with limited disruption, there was substantial support for the strike among railway workers, building workers and trade unionists, particularly in Romsey Town. At the same time, thousands of Cambridge undergraduates volunteered to help maintain services, creating a highly visible expression of support for the government and producing one of the clearest examples of Town and Gown division in twentieth-century Cambridge.

The dissertation is particularly valuable because it documents both sides of the dispute. Contemporary newspapers often celebrated the activities of student volunteers, but Pateman demonstrates that around 4,000 workers in Cambridge participated in strike action and that organised labour remained an important force within the town. Romsey, sometimes known locally as “Red Romsey”, emerged as the centre of working-class support for the miners.

Although Pateman gives relatively little attention to individual activists, her research complements the memoirs of Labour organiser Leah Manning. Manning recalled that the Cambridge General Strike Committee met in the basement of Clara Rackham’s home at 9 Park Terrace. From here, Rackham, Manning and their colleagues organised support for local strikers, distributed strike bulletins and coordinated relief efforts. Their activities reveal another side of the Cambridge story, one often overshadowed by accounts of undergraduate volunteers.

Taken together, Pateman’s dissertation and Manning’s memoirs show that the General Strike in Cambridge was not simply a story of students defending the Constitution. It was also a story of local labour organisation, community solidarity and political activism centred on figures such as Clara Rackham and Leah Manning.

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1939 UK Register

Harris Rackham, b 22.12.1868, tutor and lecturer,

Clara D Rackham, b 3.12.1875, J P Borough and City Councillor

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Clara Rackham’s biographer, historian, Mary (Maroula) Joannou has written the introduction to Clara Rackham for Capturing Cambridge. Mary has also provided the account of Clara and Harris Rackham’s family life, the biographical note on Harris Rackham, and compiled the chronology.

Introduction for Capturing Cambridge

At Home with Clara and Harris Rackham

A Brief Note on Harris Rackham

Clara Chronology

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https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-46232781

The cooperative movement in our university town

Clara Rackham reflects on the suffragist campaign – 1964.

Clara Rackham on Women and WWI: First lecture – 1915

Clara Rackham and the Cuban Missile Crisis: 1962

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1962 Kellys

Alan L Percival