Capturing Cambridge
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HMS Emperor

St Regis House, Chesterton Road

History of St Regis, Chesterton Road

1939 St Regis Flats

(1)

Martha Jane Bowman

(2)

Norman Fowler

(3)

William J R Humphries

(4)

Eric Cyril Thompson, b 1907, signalman in A A Div Sigs,

Gwendoline M, b 1913, shop assistant ladies outfitters

Gertrude Alice, b 1882

Ralph Leonard, b 1920, rating clerk

?

?

1939-45

These flats were requisitioned early in WWII to be Region 4 Headquarters. For the army, Cambridge was a District, an Area and a sub-Area centre. The Area HQ was in Herschel Road.

1944 UK Roll of Honour

Ralph Leonard Thompson: Sub-Lieutenant (A), H.M.S. Emperor., Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, who died on Monday 8 May 1944. Age 23. Commemorated on LEE-ON-SOLENT MEMORIAL Hampshire, United Kingdom. Son of Thomas Cadwallader Thompson and Gertrude Alice Thompson.

Hellcats on HMS Emperor in 1944

Pilot of Hellcat I from HMS Emperor. Shot Down By Flighters 7 Miles Off Smolen Island, Norway, Swam Away From the Aircraft But Drowned

June 1944: Fleet Air Arm Hellcats.

See Historic England: Civil Defence.

1949

This was for a while the home of Richarda Morrow-Tait, the first woman to pilot a plane around the world. She had previously lived in Ickleton.

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Capturing Cambridge makes accessible thousands of photos and memories of Cambridge and its surrounding villages and towns. It is run by the Museum of Cambridge which, though 90 years old, is one of the most poorly publicly funded local history museums in the UK. It receives no core funding from local or central government nor from the University of Cambridge.

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Museum of Cambridge