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Every year in June, soldiers of the historic Cambridgeshire Regiment are remembered at a service at Ely Cathedral.

The Regiment dates back to the men who signed up to the Cambridgeshire Rifle Volunteer Corps in 1860. It served in various conflicts including the South African and Crimean wars.

In 1908, the Corps became The Cambridgeshire Regiment within the Territorial Force.

In October 1916, under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Edward Riddell, the regiment’s 1/1st Battalion captured the formidable Schwaben Redoubt. General Haig described it as ‘one of the finest feats of arms in the history of the British Army’.

Ely was a major recruiting centre and the cathedral was adopted as the Regiment’s spiritual home. Duxford Imperial War Museum houses many of the Regimental treasures, yet it is Ely Cathedral where the regimental Colours are laid up. The Chapel of St George contains the Roll of Honour of all the fallen of the county in World War One.

Location: Ely Cathedral, Chapter House, The College, Ely, Cambridgeshire CB7 4DL
Photograph showing The Colours being decorated with a wreath of Victory on the Battalion's return to Cambridge (1919) courtesy of Martin Boswell, who presents the story

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