Margaret Chen

Margaret Chen was born to a Chinese-English family in Cambridge's Mill Road area. She joined the ATS in 1942 and served as a telephone switchboard operator at Eastern Command headquarters. Her fluency in Cantonese was later utilised when she was seconded to work with Chinese liaison officers coordinating with the British forces in the Far East theatre. After the war, she ran a successful restaurant on King Street and was a beloved figure in Cambridge's small but tight-knit Chinese community.