World War Two Servicemen at Babraham Hall Estate and Girl Guides at Gog Magog Hills

A war-time parade of servicemen at Babraham Hall Estate, and Girl Guides at "The Gogs", captured by amateur filmmaker and Cambridge don Trevor Spittle.

In 1943, British servicemen with the Bishop of Ely at the Babraham Hall estate, situated six miles south-east of Cambridge by the Gog Magog Downs known locally as “The Gogs”. A crowd have gathered at the Estate, to watch a parade of soldiers. Captured by amateur filmmaker Trevor Spittle, a Cambridge Don, whose family stayed in Cambridge throughout war. Later footage shows the filmmaker’s daughter and fellow Girl Guides at “The Gogs”, they too being vital to the war effort.

It is thought the Girl Guide featured is filmmaker Trevor Spittle's daughter, Heather. The Spittle family stayed in Cambridge throughout the war, living at Herschel Road in Cambridge. Girl Guides did a lot to help the war effort. From helping to direct evacuees; becoming electricians, mechanics, first-aid givers and signals as required; stepping in as teachers and nursery nurses; keeping up morale in bomb shelters with singing; collecting materials for recycling; painting curbs white for people to find their way in a black out; and digging for victory.