Eighty years since Victory in Europe Day

The Second World War brought profound change to the University of Cambridge. While Colleges remained open and teaching continued, the atmosphere was transformed. Students balanced University life with air raids, military training, food rationing, and for some, fears for their families living in heavily bombed cities like London.

Students, academics and staff alike were drawn into the conflict – some on the front lines, others supporting the war effort from the lecture hall, laboratory, or chapel.

Thanks to efforts by the Cambridge Colleges to gather alumni wartime memories, we’re able to share some of these first-hand student experiences with you here.

At Christ’s College, Alastair McKay, who matriculated in 1942, captured the unavoidable tension of wartime in a poignant recollection:

McKay, like many students, balanced his studies with military training. As he recalled, they had to train whilst at Cambridge in order to be ready to go from graduation, to the armed forces.

Studying for a degree in mechanical sciences, he was assigned to the Royal Engineers.

This dual academic-military life was a common theme. Donald Whitehouse, also at Christ’s (m.1942), noted that for seven terms during the war, taking part in the Senior Training Corps (S.T.C.) was expected of everyone:

At Emmanuel College, fire fighting equipment was purchased and a watchtower was set up on the roof of Front Court. All students and staff worked together to manage emergency measures and were instructed in anti-gas precautions, firefighting and first aid. Fire-watching parties were also organised on the rooftops during air raids.

One memory shared by an Emmanuel wartime alumni recounts how students Ronald Ruddle and Paul Fehrsen helped extinguish an incendiary bomb that fell on the College kitchens in January 1941.

At Downing College, parts of the College were repurposed or affected by the war effort. Eight bedrooms (now J and M staircases) were adapted as air raid shelters for students and Downing became home to RAF Cadets, Army and Navy personnel.

The College escaped any serious bomb damage, although a ‘dud’ bomb did hit the roof of the Porters’ Lodge on the night of the 15/16 January 1941.

Sadly, fifty-five Downing students, alumni and staff are known to have lost their lives during or as a result of serving in the war, including Mr C. Elsden, the College Clerk who joined the RAF. He was just 21 years old.

At St John’s College, undergraduates managed a daily balancing act between academic study and wartime readiness.

Donald Rushton, who graduated in 1945 from St John’s with a degree in Mechanical Sciences, recalled his time studying in wartime conditions:

Donald also remembered how St John’s students had no knowledge that the military planning for D-Day was happening in their Senior Combination Room. They only found out when the fact was eventually revealed decades later in 1974.

Student accommodation was often basic. Derek Hall (Christ’s College, m. 1944) shared recollections of “bare, dimly-lit rooms” heated only by an open fire.

Students formed informal fire rotas and congregated in one another’s rooms to share heat from a single bucket of coal. Poignantly he also remembered how,

Food was rationed and strictly regulated across Colleges. David W. Dewhirst (Christ’s, 1940s) described menus that included offal and whale meat, which was one of the few protein sources not subject to strict rationing.

Canon Hugh Melinsky (Christ’s, m. 1942) remembered:

Alongside hardship were moments of curiosity and opportunity. Melinsky also recounted being unexpectedly asked during a supervision whether he would consider learning Japanese. It was a recruitment effort for Bletchley Park and would have meant an intensive six-month language course followed by a possible posting to the Far East. “But that,” he wrote, “is another story.”

Military training remained a defining and inescapable feature for students. Derek Wilkes (Christ’s, 1940s) recalled parading in naval uniform at St Catharine’s College:

The war also altered the social fabric of student life. Colleges, once tightly knit communities, were sparsely populated. Communication with family members was difficult, and wartime restrictions meant that travel home, even for holidays, was sometimes impossible.

This rare historic footage from the British Film Council depicts Cambridge life in the 1940s. It shows life at the University, with students attending lectures, punting and reading on the Backs, as well as preparing for wartime fire drills and training with the Army, Navy and Home Guard. 

Dennis Buckland (Christ’s m.1940), a conscientious objector, lived in lodgings rather than College and sent part of his student allowance home to support his mother.

He remembered the strict regulation of student movement, including fines for returning after curfew and compulsory reporting of late arrivals. Even visits from female guests had to end by 10pm. “Generally I did not find any of these regulations irksome,” he wrote, “although getting back from a Society meeting could be a rush”.

Wartime experiences could also bring about more unusual challenges. For Dr C. Clapham, night duties included guarding ammunition stores hidden by the River Cam as part of Christ’s College’s CAMS unit.

Together these memories, by turns funny, sobering and heartfelt, paint a picture of a University community adapting to extraordinary circumstances.