Edith Cavell festival at Swardeston

Edith Cavell festival at Swardeston, on the 98th anniversary of her execution during the Great War. Nick Miller as Ezra Parr giving visitors a guided tour of the village as it was in the Cavells day. Photo: Bill Smith

Mark Shields Sunday, October 13, 2013
8:05 PM

The life of one of Norfolk’s great heroines was celebrated by villagers from her birthplace and visitors from around the world at a weekend of events.

Saturday marked 98 years since the death of nurse Edith Cavell by firing squad, after she was found to have helped some 200 soldiers escape from German-occupied Belgium during the first world war.

The occasion was marked by an Edith Cavell festival in Swardeston, which included an exhibition of memorabilia, talks, fancy-dress guided tours of the village and even a presentation by a descendant of one of the men saved by the heroic nurse.

Robert Tunmore is the second cousin, once removed, of Sgt Jesse Tunmore, of the 1st Norfolks, who was helped to cross the border into Holland by Edith Cavell in August 1914 after he was captured by the Germans.

The 53-year-old, who is a nurse in London, has begun a project to unite the descendants of the ‘Cavell 200’ and to raise funds for the Cavell Nurses Trust, which supports nurses in need.