Court first. In spite of the cancellation of the engagement in 1938, the Sultan continued to fund Mayfair Court and the associated servants' quarters for her. It has also been suggested that the Sultan (via Cissie) did not build the associated two houses for servants, but built them to claim the land and to prevent unsightly building by neighbours next door. Cissie lived in Mayfair Court with her mother Florence from 1935 until her death in 1940, and from 1935 to 1937 her father George Hill lived there too. In 1937 she applied to build steps and a bedroom to a design by John Howell & Son over the garage at the south end of Mayfair Court. It was approved by the Council in September and completed by November 1937. In 1938 she applied to have a small greenhouse designed by the same architect; it was completed by 10 February 1939. At that time, Mayfair Court stood on an L-shaped plot of land; part of it is now built on. The greenhouse stood on the south-western corner, now occupied by garages. On 22 May 1939 the same architect was employed again to submit an application to build a concrete tube air raid shelter, possibly similar to the Stanton shelter. This was built at the bottom of the garden, parallel with Hampton Pier Avenue. The World War II usage of the house is not known, but from 1945 it was occupied by Cissie's mother Florence until her death in 1973. For some of that time, for example in 1959 and 1969, her father George Hill lived there too. The house was unoccupied in 1974 after Florence's death. Cissie's sister and her husband lived at Mayfair Court in 1945, but moved to one of the associated houses in the 1950s (no.141) and to the other in the 1960s (no.139) until the sister left shortly after her husband's death in 1967; she died in 2005. The survival of Mayfair Court as an architectural asset to its surroundings, and views thereof, has been fragile. In 1984 there were two applications to develop its land with the building of two or three more properties, but both were refused by Canterbury City Council. References Bibliography Fishpool, J, A Town at War: Herne Bay in the Second World War: Herne Bay Past Series (Herne Bay Historical Records Society, 3 Dec 2010) Royal favourites 1940 deaths 1913 births