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A cathedral has been gifted a letter written by World War One nurse Edith Cavell just before she was shot.
She had helped British soldiers escape capture by German forces while her hospital cared for both sides' wounded.
Miss Cavell wrote to her mother Louisa from Brussels in 1915 to say she was "looking forward to a happy meeting", but within days she
was arrested.
Her body was laid to rest at Norwich Cathedral, which has now been given the "last letter".
Miss Cavell was brought up at Swardeston near Norwich and the letter, the last to her mother, mentions holidays at West Runton on
the Norfolk coast, a memory sparked by the rain in Belgium that was falling as she wrote.
The 50-year-old nurse's letter was donated by Greg Stewart, who received it from the late poet and playwright Roger Frith.
Mr Stewart said: "We had a common interest in WW1 history and I admired Roger's poetry, some of which was inspired by the trauma
suffered by his father, Arthur Frith, during his four years with the London Rifle Brigade in France."
Life of Edith Cavell
- - Born on 4 December 1865, the eldest of four children, in Swardeston, a village near Norwich
- - In 1896, started training to be a nurse at the Royal London Hospital under Matron Eva Luckes, a friend of Florence Nightingale
- - Completed her nursing training in 1898 and in 1907 became matron at the first nursing school in Belgium
- - On holiday in England when war breaks out, she quickly returns to Belgium. She soon begins helping Allied troops get home
- - Cavell is arrested in August 1915 by German troops who find her guilty of treason under a German military code - this allowed
foreigners to be convicted of treason
- - Her role of a nurse, ordinarily protected under the Geneva Convention, was seen to have been forfeited as she was helping
Allied soldiers escape
- - After a trial, at 07:00 on 12 October she is executed by firing squad
Mr Frith gave Mr Stewart the letter for safekeeping and as a mark of friendship.
"Roger told me that Edith's letter was originally gifted to his mother, Gladys, by the Cavell family," he said.
He believed the two families had church links as Arthur Frith was vicar-choral at St Paul's Cathedral and Edith Cavell's father,
the Reverend Frederick Cavell, was vicar of Swardeston until 1909.
The Reverend Dr Peter Doll, current vice dean at Norwich Cathedral, said: "Nurse Cavell's letter is of immense historical value and
is to go on public display."
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