She did not select Downe House for her own daughters, but her daughter-in-law, Catherine Palmer (DH 1975 Jackson) and two of her granddaughters, Laura Addis (Palmer DH 2002) and Harriet Palmer (DH 2009) all attended Downe House. 

It was whilst Harriet was in her first year that Cherry came to talk to the Removes about her time at Downe House during the war.  She was a Londoner through and through but was initially excited at the prospect of moving to a boarding school in the country, because her mother would then allow her to wear pyjamas rather than a nightie!  She and her sister, Jenny, arrived with Pompey their dog who slept under her bed until he was expelled for biting a matron.  However, the realities of rural wartime life soon set in and the cold winter brought on chilblains which made them both long for home.  The Queen’s Gate girls thought the DH girls were country bumpkins and the DH girls thought the Queen’s Gate girls were too sophisticated for their liking.  The two schools were taught separately and were fiercely competitive when it came to sport.  Cherry remembered how proud she was that her school would always win the tennis matches – thanks to 2 excellent players in the year above.  They could not really compete in other sports, however, and she was not impressed by lacrosse! 

She remembered many events during the war, hearing aircraft flying overhead, the rumour that a parachutist had landed nearby and particularly the huge bonfire lit on VE day to celebrate the end of the war. She recalled Miss Willis handing out cigarettes to the girls!  She also remembered Miss Nickel and her ability to do practically anything. 

At the age of 21 she married Bill Palmer (of the Huntley and Palmers biscuit-making family) and they subsequently came to live near Downe House with their four children. She joined the Berkshire Red Cross and rose to President. During this time, she tirelessly helped the East African Asian refugees from Uganda who had been expelled by the dictator Idi Amin in 1972 and who were being housed at Greenham Common. 

Bill’s cousin, Elizabeth (‘Bets’) Palmer, was always closely connected to the school, having been a pupil in Kent and later Miss Medley’s first Vice-Principal, after which she lived at Fencewood. It was through Bets (and her own granddaughters) that Cherry overcame her misgivings about her wartime experiences, and acquired a close interest in Downe in later life. She was pleased to be invited to the opening of the Palmer Centre and to be interviewed by her two granddaughters for a recent DHSA Magazine. 

She died peacefully at home on 12th July 2023. 

Written by: 

The Palmer family