Edith Cavell grave in Norwich to be restored

Work to restore the grave of executed World War I nurse Edith Cavell at Norwich Cathedral is to go ahead after the plans were awarded a £50,000 grant.

The nurse helped more than 200 allied soldiers escape occupied Belgium before being shot by the Germans in 1915.

The money has been awarded by Helen Grant, minister for the World War I centenary programme.

At the same time the Heritage Lottery Fund has awarded £91,000 to explore stories about her life.

The remains of Edith Cavell are buried at Norwich Cathedral

This grant to the Cavell Nurses' Trust will be used to explore and share the many stories surrounding Cavell's life and death; the use of her death as propaganda to drive allied recruitment, the ceremonial repatriation of her body, her work in Belgium, the stories of those she helped save and her role in professionalising nursing in the early 20th Century.

On Saturday there was an Edith Cavell Commemoration Service at Norwich Cathedral and a wreath laid at her graveside.

On Sunday the annual wreath-laying memorial service was held beside the Edith Cavell statue in St Martin-in-the-Fields in central London - to mark the the 99th anniversary of her death.

The wreath-laying ceremony in London was led by actress Sophie Ward on Sunday

The wreath-laying ceremony was led by actress Sophie Ward, who is a Patron of Cavell Nurses' Trust.

Cavell, born at Swardeston, near Norwich, worked as a nurse at the Berkendael Institute in Brussels during World War I. Arrested in August 1915 for helping allied soldiers, she was executed within hours of her October trial.

Her body was exhumed from her execution site in 1919 and given a military escort to Dover and then on to Westminster Abbey for a memorial ceremony. She was finally laid to rest in the grounds of Norwich Cathedral.

Edith Cavell, born at Swardeston, near Norwich, worked as a nurse at the Berkendael Institute in Brussels during World War I