We, the Mayor, Aldermen and Burgesses of the Borough of Cambridge, hereby confer the Honorary Freedom of the Borough of Cambridge upon the Eighth United States Army Air Force in recognition and grateful appreciation of the great part played by that Unit in winning victory for the cause of liberty and justice in the European War, now at length concluded, and in memory of the close and happy association with Cambridge of the whole Unit throughout the long struggle, and in the sincere hope that this association will contribute to ever increasing friendship and understanding between the American and British peoples in the years to come.
Given under the Common Seal this Second day of August, 1945.
Sixty years after the end of the Second World War, and sixty years after this resolution was made by Cambridge Borough Council, it is appropriate to remember all those American men and women who served in and around Cambridge between 1941 and 1946, by making available this collection of studio portrait photographs of those Americans who chose to visit the Cambridge photographic studio of Ramsey and Muspratt. Most of the young men and women returned home to the United States; sadly many have remained with us and lie in the Cambridge American Cemetery at Madingley. These negatives have survived alongside those of the thousands of other Allied service-men and women who visited the studio, wishing to send a photo to their families, showing them smiling and well. These predominantly young, fresh-faced men and women represent a generation of Americans to whom Cambridge, Great Britain and Europe owe an immense debt of gratitude.
They were not the first generation of Americans who came to Cambridge as allies in a World War. In 1918 American troops spent time at Duxford and visited Cambridge to see the sights. On the 4th July that year the Stars and Stripes was flown from the flagpole on Cambridge Railway Station to welcome American servicemen and they played a game of baseball on Fenner's cricket ground. Remarkably F.W.McKennie walked into the same photographic studio, (then trading as J Palmer Clarke), and had his photograph taken.
Towards the end of 1942 the Cambridge local newspapers were allowed to acknowledge the fact that the Americans had arrived. Wartime censorship meant that much that went on had to be ignored or only reported in a very general way. The Cambridge Daily News, 31st August 1942, carried an article headed "Guide to American Uniforms".
"The story is told of how, when the American forces first arrived over here, our troops - puzzled by the officer-like appearance of the U.S. enlisted men - found themselves smartly saluting soldiers of a rank similar to or lower than their own. "This caused some mirth among the Americans and a certain embarrassment to the British."
The smartness of the American uniforms is evident in these photographs.
The Ramsey and Muspratt Studio at Post Office Terrace
Situated in the heart of Cambridge, off St Andrew's Street, the studio had been occupied by a succession of photographers from the 1860s, including Arthur Nichols and J Palmer Clarke. From the early 1930s it taken over by Lettice Ramsey and Helen Muspratt, and their distinctive style of portrait photography soon made it the place for Cambridge academics and residents to visit.
The Granta, 9th June 1937, in one of its Cambridge Cameo articles, describes Mrs Ramsey and her work as follows;-
"She came to Cambridge, because it was the most suitable place. She had been to Newnham [College] herself … Cambridge gives her what both she and Miss Muspratt want : a public that will understand their experiments and appreciate their taste. "Hers is the photography of originality. She does not need the old-fashioned curtained room, heavy arc-lamps and elaborate watch-for-the-dickybird camera. They prefer to take people naturally, ten or twelve times if necessary, to make certain. "Änd there is the studio … white painted walls, a glass roof; bare floor, light-coloured seats and divans and a tubular steel chair, and curiously ponderous lamps grouped all round the room in odd harmony. In this studio which is sunny and very hot, Mrs Ramsey sits … She likes business and she is good at it. She likes photography, and she is very good at it. She has taste."
Helen Muspratt moved to Oxford to set up a second studio there, and Lettice Ramsey continued to run the Cambridge studio until the 1980s. Eventually the business passed to the photographer Peter Lofts, who very generously presented the majority of the studio's negative archive to the Cambridgeshire Collection, the Local Studies Department of Cambridge Central Library. Other examples of the work of Ramsey and Muspratt can be seen on Peter Lofts' website www.loftyimages.co.uk along with classic views of Cambridge in the nineteenth century.
The Cambridgeshire Collection
The first Public Library opened in Cambridge in 1855, and from the beginning collected and made available to the public a wide range of material relating to the history of the City, University and County of Cambridge. This became the Cambridgeshire Collection, a unique local studies collection of printed material dating from the Sixteenth Century, which includes books, journals, newspapers, maps, ephemera of all sorts, and not least some 400,000 illustrations, photographs and negatives.
Cambridgeshire Collection, Central library, 7 Lion Yard, Cambridge, CB2 3QD
The information given with each set of photos is taken from the studio record card produced at the time. We would welcome any clarification or additional information on any of the people photographed.
Prints can be ordered of any of the photographs.