2025
UPDATE 10-10-2025
A special exhibition ’Edith Cavell in her own voice’ is open in the Cathedral Library on Tuesdays to Thursdays between 10-4 till Tuesday 23 December). Read more at https://cathedral.org.uk/events/edith-cavell-exhibition/ – Jack, her faithful dog, features..
A recording of the EC 110 symposium New Insights into Edith Cavell’s Life and Legacy held on Saturday 11th October is available on YouTube: see details below:
with a transcript (some problems with the spelling of names etc!)
Time: 2 hours 51 minutes
Order and titles of the 6 presentations, and duration (starts and ends)
Canon Peter Doll Welcome and Introduction 10.51-12.25
Prof Nancy Fontaine Cavell Nurses Trust 12.35 -22.47
Robert Tunmore Cavell Nurses Trust 22.53- 34.24
Professor Emmanuel Debruyne 35.40 – 1.04
The Cavell network 1914-15
Candice Millard 1.05 – 1.25
Three ‘resistantes’ – Edith, Marie and Louise
Canon Peter Doll 1.30 – 1.47
Edith Cavell and her priests
Andrew Brown Chair of BECCG 1.48 – 2.05
Edith’s return from Brussels to Norwich 1919
Nick Miller, Edith Cavell Swardeston Archivist 2.09 – 2.45
Edith Cavell – new evidence and new insights 2015-2025
The “Edith Cavell 110” weekend took place at Norwich Cathedral on 11 and 12 October. The Revd Dr Peter Doll, Norwich Cathedral’s Canon Librarian and Vice Dean, said: “Even today, so long after her death, Edith’s extraordinary life and witness continue to engage and inspire people around the world.”
All are welcome to attend the annual graveside commemoration beside Edith’s grave on Saturday 11 October at 11am.
NEW POSTS 10-10-25
- Edith Cavell’s grave marker at the Tir National from 1918 – rediscovered 2022 – newly placed in 2023 (Read more https://edithcavell.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/brussels-grave-marker.pdf)
2. Christmas at the Swardeston vicarage, 1886 – rediscovered 2024 – a parallel with a Christmas party in Edith’s Clinique in Brussels 1914 (Read more https://edithcavell.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/christmas-at-the-swardeston-vicarage-1886-2.pdf)
3. Women in Intelligence covering WW1 and WW2, Helen Fry, Yale University Press, 2023 (Read more https://edithcavell.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/women-in-intelligence-covering-ww1-and-ww2-101025.pdf)
4. Grace Jemmett and Pauline Randall – their later years Discovered 2025. Two young British women befriended by Edith Cavell and living with her in her Brussels Clinique till her arrest in August 1915. What happened to them after Edith Cavell’s execution? (Read more https://edithcavell.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/grace-jemmett-and-pauline-randall-update-2025-101025.pdf)
5. First Aid Nursing Yeomanry volunteers in WWI – discovered 2025 (Read more here)
6. Durham miners’ Edith Cavell banner – discovered 2024 (Read more here)
7. A new bust of Edith Cavell in Brussels – 2024 /5 (Read more here)
8. New ‘trench lighter’ – discovered October 6th 2025 – (Read more https://edithcavell.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/new-edith-cavell-trench-lighter-discovered-oct-2025.pdf)
2024
December
Video of Edith Cavell opera excerpts and libretto
A 34-minute video of excerpts from the 1923 opera Edith Cavell revived in Malta in summer 2023 is now accessible at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kW-e4IfAn9o&ab_channel=DarioSalvi. The libretto of the excerpts in Italian and an English translation are accessible here. For further background please see the entry for June 2023 (below).
Revised Cavell Pilgrimage map
The map of walk- and cycle-ways between Norwich Cathedral and Swardeston (Edith’s home village) produced in 2014 has been updated. Access the revised version at https://cathedral.org.uk/cathedral-highlights/edith-cavell/ in the section on the pilgrimage.
November
Help with the Swardeston Archive.
The backlog of data entry for the archive is growing – including from the Gaskell memorabilia – see August entry below. Any offers of help in the task would be very gratefully received. Copies of the material as yet not included in the Archive and guidance on how to create entries (in Excel) can be provided. Contact : enquiry@edithcavell.org.uk
October 12 and 13 commemorations
The annual graveside commemoration was held at 11 am at Norwich Cathedral.
“Encounters with Edith Cavell”: Swardeston
To mark the 109th anniversary of Edith Cavell’s execution (Saturday 12 October) a presentation “Encounters with Edith Cavell” was given on 12 and 13 October in St Mary’s Church, Swardeston.
Five accounts were shared about people who first encountered Edith Cavell between 1911 and 1915 and whose lives were changed by their encounters. These include a girl who was ‘adopted’ by Edith in 1911, a nurse who was ‘forgiven’ by Edith in spring 1914, a soldier sheltered by her in June 1915, a French resistance worker whom she met in February 1915, and the chaplain who talked with her in prison on October 11th 1915, the night before she died. In each case these stories are “representative” (in broad terms) of many like them.
A revised transcript of the material can be found here.
August
New memorabilia acquired by the Archive
A major collection of Cavell memorabilia of the late Jeremy Gaskell was acquired jointly by the Archive and Norwich Cathedral. In due course a full list of items will be added to the Archive. In the meantime you can see some of the postcards which were published shortly after her execution here and here. Some have associations to smoking – see here and here. Enquiries about the material can be made at enquiry@edithcavell.org.uk. Some of the items will be on display from October 11th 2025 in the Cathedral Library – see top of this page.
2023
Edith Cavell – a 1923 opera comes alive after 96 years on June 17th
At last, after three disappointments in May 2020, 2021 and 2022, the first performance of this opera, unheard since 1927, took place on June 17 2023 in Valletta, Malta. It was performed at the Royal Opera House site (destroyed in WW2 – now the open-air space Pjazza Teatru Rjal) where it was launched in 1927. The Malta Philharmonic Orchestra and Kor Malta chorus were joined by three international soloists under conductor Dario Salvi (https://www.dariosalvi.com/). The revival formed part of the centenary commemorations of the death of its composer Paolino Vassallo. (See more on Vassallo at http://www.requiemsurvey.org/composers.php?id=1852).
The manuscript scores of Acts 1 and 2 of this ‘lost’ opera were discovered in Norfolk in 2017. After the third Act was found in Malta in late 2018 the score’s 300 A3 pages were transcribed for reproduction. A piano accompaniment version and a new English translation of the libretto were also prepared.
Italian Soprano Martina Bortolotti (martinabortolotti.com) sang the title role of Edith Cavell, with Jorge Carreras (https://www.miaartists.com/jorge-pita-carreras/) from the US as Philippe Baucq (who was executed with Edith Cavell) and Gina Galati (https://www.miaartists.com/gina-galati/), also from the US, singing the role of Charlotte Bonnet.
Excerpts (32 minutes) from a video of the performance are at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kW-e4IfAn9o&ab_channel=DarioSalvi and the associated libretto for the video is here.
Plans are in hand to perform the opera in the UK and in St Louis, Missouri in the US in due course. Further information from: enquiry@edithcavell.org.uk
National Portrait Gallery, St Martins Place, London re-opens
The Gallery was closed for a major refurbishment from spring 2020. The World War 1 gallery in the re-arranged building is well worth a visit (no charge). Two enormous composite portraits of the key British political and military figures in the First World War flank the tiny, white stone, spotlighted maquette for Sir George Frampton’s statue of Edith Cavell. The 40 foot statue, unveiled in March 1920, is located immediately outside the Gallery – see https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/london-statues-and-monuments/edith-cavell/
2022
November
A discovery – nurse Ada Cole’s work in Antwerp in WW1 in a network similar to the YORC network in which Edith Cavell played a major part
Following a lead from a researcher in the Eastern Daily Press (EDP) archives of 1919 the story of nurse Ada Cole who originated from Norfolk has been rediscovered. The three articles from the EDP on her story and her reminiscences together with material on her life and other work can be seen here :
A. Smuggling the boys here.
B. In prison here
C. WW1 memorial services here
D. Background on Ada Cole and on Edith Cavell here
October
- Wednesday 12th – St Mary’s Church Swardeston presentation by Tony Diamond – ‘The Hijacking of Edith Cavell’. (Tony also gave this presentation in Norwich Cathedral in November)
Tony gave an illustrated talk on his recent book in which he tells a fictionalised version of the use of Edith Cavell’s execution in WW1 publicity. Copies of the book are available from Tony
April
A new account of Edith Cavell and Margaret Pickering who nursed with her from 1910-1915
New material on a nurse who worked with Edith Cavell has been provided by a relative who has been researching her family tree. Edith Cavell’s part in her sorry is moving. Read Margaret Pickering’s story here.
File attached
200,000+ visitors to this site
The count of visitors to the site recorded the 200,000th in April. Worldwide XXXX We always value feedback – email us on enquiry@edithcavell.org.uk
2021
FindMyPast webinar, 20 January 2021
A 75 minute webinar on Edith Cavell featured on YouTube and Facebook involving Norwich Cathedral’s Canon Peter Doll and Nick Miller from Swardeston. It can be seen at : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2pzbuMnj-Y. It has been seen by over 1000 people to date.
Letter from Edith Cavell to her mother July 26 1915
Norwich Cathedral have recently been given a hitherto unknown letter – see details at:
https://www.cathedral.org.uk/about/news/detail/2020/11/11/edith-cavell-letter-gifted-to-cathedral
Additional background can be seen here (downloads pdf files):
Background For Edith Cavell Letter
Photos for Background to Edith Cavell Letter
Remembering Edith Cavell amid Covid-19
Reflections for the 105th anniversary of her execution October 2020
Sections on, The WWI crisis: preparation and response, ‘Lockdown’ – rules and risks, Isolation and endurance, ‘When better days come’ – a future after the crisis.
Document can be downloaded here (pdf): Remembering Edith Cavell amid Covid 19
Book by Katie Pickles
Transnational Outrage: The Death and Commemoration of Edith Cavell, Katie Pickles, Palgrave Macmillan, 2015 edn.
This book by a New Zealand professor of history reviews the impact of Edith Cavell’s execution across the world, especially in the British Empire. The author considers in detail the place of the Cavell story in WWI and its memorialisation and the importance of a woman’s story in WWI memory.
A book on Edith by Terri Arthur
The US nurse Terri Arthur has long been a Cavell enthusiast. In 2011 she published a substantial historical novel retelling the Cavell story Fatal Decision: Edith Cavell World War I Nurse. In June 2017 she published an illustrated 78 page book telling the story for 8-10 year olds Edith Cavell Nurse Hero (£10.95; $11.95)). Her publisher is HenschelHaus in the US – contact them for details of both books (www.henschelhausbooks.com)
A 1903 painting by Edith Cavell
A watercolour purchased in a second hand shop in Sheringham, Norfolk in 1965 for 1 shilling was painted by Edith Cavell. It is dated 18/2/1903 and initialled EC in the bottom right hand corner. It was painted whilst she worked at the St Pancras Poor Law Institution. She and a colleague, whose home was in Rickmansworth in Hertfordshire, were known to have taken long walks out of London. The old building depicted is probably one they came across on their walks. If you have any suggestions about the building’s whereabouts please send them to enquiry@edithcavell.org.uk
Revd Stirling Gahan’s books
A contact in Leicestershire has recently generously donated Rev Stirling Gahan’s copy of Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan and other material on the Gahans. Stirling Gahan was the Anglican chaplain in Brussels in World War I and spent time with Edith in her cell the night before her death. These items are accessible via the Archive.
Statuettes of Edith Cavell 1918
The 2019 Cavell Flower Festival featured a collection of statuettes sold after the unveiling of the two statues of Edith Cavell in Tombland Norwich (1918) and St Martin’s Plain London (1920). See this document.
Lighters and matches featuring Edith Cavell 1916
A contact from South Dakota in the USA asked if anything was known about a lighter he found when digging near his home. See what has emerged since here.
Edith Cavell 1865-1915 
