The London School of Economics also suffered as a result of the war, and the programme had to be suspended for a year as the school relocated to Cambridge. The school's departments were divided and spread across the campus leaving the students in the social work program isolated. Not only did the war affect the school Clare attended, but the impacts of the Blitz would also find their way to Clare personally and leave a lasting impression on her as a young woman. During the German Luftwaffe's bombing of Great Britain, Clare's maternal grandparents fled Southend-on-Sea after their house was damaged by bomb blasts. The early years of the Second World War proved intensely destructive in her life as, by 1941, her maternal grandmother had died and her younger brother had narrowly evaded capture by German troops during the Battle of Crete.