Historic carriage returns for Remembrance events

The carriage, with a curved roof and made of dark brown wood, sits on a set of tracks.Image source, The Cavell Train
Image caption,

The carriage was used to bring the bodies of Edith Cavell, Charles Fryatt and the Unknown Warrior back to the UK

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The carriage used to repatriate the body of the Unknown Warrior will be on display in Kent as part of Remembrance Day events.

The Cavell Van will be at Dover's cruise terminal between 7 and 16 November, the same location as its arrival in England just after World War One.

It is named after Edith Cavell, the British nurse executed by the Germans in 1915 for helping prisoners of war escape, whose body was also repatriated in the carriage in 1919.

In the same year it was used to bring home the body of Charles Fryatt, a British merchant navy captain executed for using his ship to ram a German U-boat off the coast of Belgium in 1916.

A black and white photograph of Edith Cavell, wearing a striped blouse, dark cravat and dark skirt.Image source, Getty Images
Image caption,

Edith Cavell was executed by the Germans in 1915 for helping British POWs escape through Belgium

The Unknown Warrior was an unidentified soldier whose remains were brought from the battlefield, to be given a state funeral and burial in Westminster Abbey in 1920.

In all three repatriations the carriage arrived at Dover Marine station at the Western Docks, now the site of the cruise terminal.

The interior of the Cavell van, featuring a coffin on a union flag, a small altar and information posters about the people it was used to repatriate.Image source, The Cavell Train
Image caption,

The carriage was restored in 2010

The van, built in the 19th Century, was restored in 2010, having been used by South Eastern and Chatham Railway, the Southern Railway and British Railways.

It will be displayed on a length of track provided by Network Rail.

Visits will be in blocks of one hour and must be booked online., external

A coffin covered in a union flag is carried on a gun carriage up a pier by several sailors, with a large group of nuns and officers following behind.Image source, PA Media
Image caption,

The carriage was used to repatriate Edith Cavell's body in 1919

Diederik Smet from the Port of Dover said: "The Port is proud to have the Cavell Van on display in the exact location where it began its historic journeys to Westminster Abbey over 100 years ago.

Media caption,

Listen: The untold story of Van 132

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