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Cllr Clare Ungerson

Cllr Ungerson Scaled

 

Register of Interests

About:

I have been a Sandwich Town Councillor since February 2022 when I was elected as an Independent, along with three other Independents, all of us ‘endorsed by Sandwich Matters’, in a by election. I was very pleased to be re-elected in the regular local election in May 2023 and delighted to be chosen, by my fellow councillors, to be Deputy Mayor for 2023/4.

I am passionate about Sandwich, its heritage, its history and its people. I first visited when I came to live and work in Canterbury in 1973 and decided that, if at all possible, I would eventually move here. Fortunately my husband and fellow councillor, Dr William Fortescue, and I found the ideal house in Sandwich in 2004, and have lived here since we both retired in 2005.

I worked as an academic in Universities all my career and am a retired Professor of Social Policy. In my retirement I researched and wrote a book about an important aspect of Sandwich history which was published in hardback by the History Press in 2014 and in paperback in 2019. It’s called ‘Four Thousand Lives: the rescue of German Jewish men to Britain in1939’. These 4000 men came to live on the edge of Sandwich in 1939 and were here till May 1940. Many of them joined the British Army. I am currently working with the Guildhall Museum Coordinator and the Director of Dover Museum to bring an exhibition about this rescue to Sandwich, and other venues in East Kent including Canterbury Cathedral, in early 2024.

I am a member of the Phoenix Singers which used to meet in the Phoenix Centre before it closed during the pandemic. I am now a trustee of the Jubilee Centre which is the new name for the old Phoenix Centre and am absolutely delighted that we have managed to reopen this much needed Community Hub. I am taking responsibility for fundraising from grant giving bodies. It’s early days but we are confident we can turn this wonderful building into a thriving community centre once again.

I am Chair of the Disability Access Working Group which is working to make Sandwich more accessible and I am hoping, if my fellow councillors are happy with that, to continue to be chair of the Town Council’s Heritage and Townscape Committee.

Ward: North Ward

Party:

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