NURSE CAVELL

New Zealand Times, Volume XLIV, Issue 10291, 28 May 1919, Page 5

NURSE CAVELL

HER FUNERAL SERVICE WOMEN’S DEMONSTRATION AT WESTMINSTER. By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright Australian and N-Z. Cable Association. LONDON, May 15. Th© funeral service for Nurse Cavell in Westminster Abbey was a remarkable women’s demonstration. There has been nothing like it since Queen Victoria’s funeral. The flags on Government offices were at half-mast, and tile streets "were crowded, the women outnumbering the men by five to one. Hie Coldstream Guards me* the coffin at Victoria Station, and it was placed on a gun-carriage and covered with the Union Jack and a single wreath. The troops escorted it to tho west door of the Atibey. There was a remarkable gathering in the choir, including Queen Alexandra, Princess Victoria, members of the Cabinet, Ambassadors, High Commissioners, Agents-General, and leading military and naval officers. Australian nurses were prominent, in, tho nave, and there were also big delegations from the W.A.A.C., the W.B.N.S-, Air Force girls, Red Cross nurses, and every department of women’s activity in the war. Tho anthems, prayers, and lessons emphasised the dominant not© of the service, that Nurse Cavell was a Christian who died in the Lord.

The most moving episode was the congregation’s singing of Lyte’s hymn, “Abide With Me,” which Nurse Gavell* repeated just before her execution - The service closed with the “Dead March” in “Saul,” and the “Last Post.”

The gun-carriage was escorted by tho Coldstream Guards along the embankment to the city. The Lord Mayor saluted it from the Mansion House. There were tremendous crowds on the route to Liverpool street station, whence the remains werq. ( taken to: Norwich and buried in a. cqfpq&rfti the Cathedral Close called “Life’s Green,” under the shadow of the* memorial chapel to those who died in the war.

CHEVALIER OF LEGION OF HONOUR.

LONDON, May 15.

31. Poincare, President of France, has presented Nurse Cavell with- the posthumous decoration of a Chevalier of the Legion of Honour. *