Cavell Van

Cavell Van
Cavell Van
	The Cavell Van after restoration
In service	1919–91
Manufacturer	South Eastern and Chatham Railway
Built at	Ashford Works
Family name	PMVY
Constructed	1919
Refurbished	2010
Number built	1
Number preserved	1
Fleet numbers	132; 1972; DS734; 082757; 93
Operators	South Eastern and Chatham Railway; Southern Railway; British Railways (Southern Region); Kent and East Sussex Railway
Specifications
Car length	32 feet 0 inches (9.75 m)
Track gauge	4ft 8½ in (1,435 mm)

Last updated July 08, 2024

The Cavell Van is the prototype Parcels and Miscellaneous Van (US: boxcar) built by the South Eastern and Chatham Railway in 1919. It is so named because it was the van which carried the body of Edith Cavell when it was repatriated to the United Kingdom following the end of the First World War. The van also carried the bodies of Charles Fryatt and The Unknown Warrior. The three were the only sets of British remains repatriated following the end of World War I.^[1] The van served with the South Eastern and Chatham Railway, the Southern Railway and British Railways before entering into preservation at the Kent and East Sussex Railway. The van was fully restored in 2010.

History

The Cavell Van was designed by Richard Maunsell.^[2] It was built to Diagram 960 by the South Eastern and Chatham Railway at Ashford Works in 1919 and was the prototype Parcels and Miscellaneous Van.^[3] In 1919, it was used for the carriage of the bodies of two people killed during the First World War – Edith Cavell and Charles Fryatt. It carried the body of The Unknown Warrior in 1920.^[4]

Edith Cavell

Edith Cavell was born in Swardeston, Norfolk in 1865. She trained as a nurse in 1907 and worked at various hospitals in Belgium. During 1914–15, she helped over 200 allied POWs escape before being arrested and subsequently executed.^[5] Her body was repatriated from Belgium in May 1919, and was transported in the Cavell Van from Dover to London.^[6]

Charles Fryatt

Charles Fryatt was born in Southampton, Hampshire in 1872. A merchant mariner, he joined the Great Eastern Railway in 1892 and took command of his first ship in 1913.^[7] On 28 March 1915, his ship, the SS Brussels was ordered to stop by U-33, but Fryatt ordered full steam ahead and attempted to ram U-33, which crash dived.^[8] On 25 June 1916, Fryatt's ship was captured by the Germans and escorted into Zeebrugge. Fryatt was Court Martialled and later executed.^[9] His body was repatriated in July 1919, and was carried in the Cavell Van from Dover to London, prior to his funeral at St. Paul's Cathedral, London.^[6]

The Unknown Warrior

The Unknown Warrior was a British soldier killed on a battlefield in Europe.^[10] His body was carried from Dover to London on board the Cavell Van on 10 November 1920,^[6] prior to the funeral service at Westminster Abbey on 11 November 1920.^[10]

Service history

Interior Cavell Van, Bodiam CavellVanQEIIJ60.jpg — Interior Cavell Van, Bodiam

The van was numbered 132 by the South Eastern and Chatham Railway. It passed to the Southern Railway in 1923 and was renumbered 1972, then 374S on transfer to departmental service in August 1946. The van was used as a stores van serving Lancing Carriage Works and Brighton Works. Under British Railways it was numbered DS734. It was transferred to the internal user pool in October 1967 and renumbered 082757. The van ended its service at Guildford cable depot. The van was withdrawn from service in 1991 and stored at Hoo Junction. It was sold to the Tenterden Rolling Stock Group in 1992 and moved to the Kent and East Sussex Railway. It was delivered to Wittersham Road on 22 January 1992. The van is numbered 93 on the Kent and East Sussex Railway stocklist. In 1994, the van was moved to the Rother Valley Railway at Robertsbridge. During its stay at the Rother Valley Railway, the van was sold and its condition deteriorated. It was sold again in 2003 and returned to the Kent and East Sussex Railway in 2004.^[2]

In December 2009, an appeal was opened to raise £35,000 to fully restore the van, with the intention of completion by 10 November 2010, the 90th anniversary of the carriage of the body of The Unknown Warrior.^[6] The fully restored van was unveiled on 10 November 2010,^[11] and will now be used as a museum to commemorate The Unknown Warrior, Cavell and Fryatt. The exhibition mounted inside the van was put together by pupils from Homewood School, Tenterden, in a joint project between the school and the railway. The pupils carried out research at the Imperial War Museum, London, where they were allowed access to letters written by Cavell. The project was entered in a competition organised by the British Interactive Media Association. Homewood School were declared the winners of the competition on 8 July 2010.^[12] The van's historical importance is assessed as "very important" by the Vintage Carriages Trust.^[3] In October 2015, the van was transported by road to Norwich, Norfolk as part of the commemorations for the 100th anniversary of Edith Cavell's death. The van was on display outside The Forum until 17 October.^[13]

Related Research Articles

Edith Louisa Cavell was a British nurse. She is celebrated for treating wounded soldiers from both sides without discrimination during the First World War and for helping some 200 Allied soldiers escape from German-occupied Belgium. Cavell was arrested, court-martialled under German military law and sentenced to death by firing squad. Despite international pressure for mercy, the German Government refused to commute her sentence and she was shot. The execution received worldwide condemnation and extensive press coverage.

The Kent and East Sussex Railway (K&ESR) refers to both a historical private railway company in Kent and East Sussex in England, as well as a heritage railway currently running on part of the route of the historical company. The railway runs between Tenterden Town and Bodiam.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Southern Railway (UK)</span> British "Big 4" railway company, active 1923–1947

The Southern Railway (SR), sometimes shortened to 'Southern', was a British railway company established in the 1923 Grouping. It linked London with the Channel ports, South West England, South coast resorts and Kent. The railway was formed by the amalgamation of several smaller railway companies, the largest of which were the London and South Western Railway (LSWR), the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway (LB&SCR) and the South Eastern and Chatham Railway (SE&CR). The construction of what was to become the Southern Railway began in 1838 with the opening of the London and Southampton Railway, which was renamed the London & South Western Railway.

The Hastings line is a secondary railway line in Kent and East Sussex, England, linking Hastings with the main town of Tunbridge Wells, and London via Tonbridge and Sevenoaks. Although primarily carrying passengers, the railway also serves a gypsum mine which is a source of freight traffic. Southeastern Trains operates passenger trains on the line, and it is one of their busiest lines.

James Clayton MBE was an English mechanical engineer who worked extensively on railway locomotives.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">SECR C class</span>

The South Eastern and Chatham Railway (SECR) C Class is a class of 0-6-0 steam locomotive, designed by Harry Wainwright and built between 1900 and 1908. They were designed for freight duties, although occasionally used for passenger trains. They operated over the lines of the railway in London and south-east England until the early 1960s. One example was rebuilt as an S Class saddle tank.

The South Eastern and Chatham Railway (SECR) H Class is a class of 0-4-4T steam locomotive originally designed for suburban passenger work, designed by Harry Wainwright in 1904. Most of the sixty-six members of the class were later equipped for push-pull working for use on rural branch lines.

The South Eastern Railway (SER) O Class was a class of 0-6-0 steam locomotive designed for goods work, and were the main goods engines of the SER, and later the South Eastern and Chatham Railway (SECR) for a number of years. However, they were displaced by the more powerful C class locomotives following the amalgamation of the South Eastern Railway and London, Chatham and Dover Railway (LCDR) in 1899. This relegated the class to working on the numerous branch lines in Kent, on both passenger and goods work. They worked most notably on the Kent & East Sussex Railway and East Kent Railway, operating coal trains from the Kent coal fields to London, as well as shunting work at such locations as Shepherds Well, Hoo Junction and Ashford. The majority were withdrawn before the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939, and those that remained were slowly withdrawn from nationalisation onwards.

The SECR N class was a type of 2-6-0 ("mogul") steam locomotive designed in 1914 by Richard Maunsell for mixed-traffic duties on the South Eastern and Chatham Railway (SECR). Built between 1917 and 1934, it was the first non-Great Western Railway (GWR) type to use and improve upon the basic design principles established by GWR Chief Mechanical Engineer (CME) George Jackson Churchward. The N class was based on the GWR 4300 Class design, improved with Midland Railway concepts.

The SECR D class is a class of 4-4-0 tender locomotives designed by Harry Wainwright for the South Eastern and Chatham Railway.

The SECR N1 class was a type of 3-cylinder 2-6-0 ('mogul') steam locomotive designed by Richard Maunsell for mixed traffic duties, initially on the South Eastern and Chatham Railway (SECR), and later operated for the Southern Railway (SR). The N1 was a development of the basic principles established by the Great Western Railway's (GWR) Chief Mechanical Engineer (CME) George Jackson Churchward and by Maunsell's previous N class design.

The Hawkhurst branch line was a short railway line in Kent that connected Hawkhurst, Cranbrook, Goudhurst and Horsmonden with the town of Paddock Wood and the South Eastern and Medway Valley lines, a distance of 11 miles 24 chains.

Bodiam railway station is a heritage railway station on the Kent and East Sussex Railway in Bodiam, East Sussex.

The SECR K class was a type of 2-6-4 tank locomotive designed in 1914 by Richard Maunsell for express passenger duties on the South Eastern and Chatham Railway (SECR), which operated between London and south-east England. The Southern Railway (SR) K1 class was a three-cylinder variant of the K class, designed in 1925 to suit a narrower loading gauge. They were among the first non-Great Western Railway (GWR) types to use and improve upon the basic design principles of power and standardisation established by GWR Chief Mechanical Engineer (CME) George Jackson Churchward. The locomotives were based on the GWR 4300 class, improved by the Midland Railway's ideals of simplicity and ease of maintenance.

The British grave of the Unknown Warrior holds an unidentified member of the British armed forces killed on a European battlefield during the First World War. He was given a state funeral and buried in Westminster Abbey, London on 11 November 1920, simultaneously with a similar interment of a French unknown soldier at the Arc de Triomphe in France, making both graves the first examples of a tomb of the Unknown Soldier, and the first to honour the unknown dead of the First World War.

The Kent & East Sussex Railway has hosted a variety of heritage rolling stock since the line was closed by British Railways in 1961.

The Bluebell Railway is a heritage line West Sussex and East Sussex in England.

Charles Algernon Fryatt was a British merchant seaman who was court martialled by the Imperial German Navy for attempting to ram a German U-boat in 1915. When his ship, the SS Brussels, was captured by the Germans off occupied Belgium in 1916, Captain Fryatt was court-martialled by German military law and sentenced to death for "illegal civilian warfare". He was executed by firing squad near Bruges, Belgium. In 1919, his body was reburied with honours in the United Kingdom.

The Diagram 960 PMVs were a series of Parcels and Miscellaneous Van (PMV), previously designated Passenger Luggage Van (PLV), built by the South Eastern and Chatham Railway (SE&CR) from 1919. The prototype van was used to carry the bodies of Edith Cavell, Charles Fryatt, and The Unknown Warrior from Dover to London, and has been preserved by the Kent and East Sussex Railway. The SE&CR vans were known as the Cavell Vans for this reason.

The SECR E class was a class of 4-4-0 tender locomotives designed by Harry Wainwright for express passenger trains on the South Eastern and Chatham Railway. It was a larger version of the D class incorporating a Belpaire firebox

References

↑ King, Lorraine (11 November 2018). "Restoration of Captain Fryatt's grave completed". Harwich and Manningtree Standard.
1 2 "SECR/SR Passenger Vans". Kent and East Sussex Railway. Archived from the original on 24 November 2010. Retrieved 10 November 2010.
1 2 "SECR 132 prototype Maunsell SECR Luggage Van (PMV) built 1919". Railway Heritage Register Partnership. Vintage Carriages Trust. Retrieved 10 November 2010.
↑ "WWI heroes' carriage is restored in Tenterden". BBC News Online. 10 November 2010. Retrieved 10 November 2010.
↑ "Nurse Edith Cavell, a Norfolk Heroine". Edithcavell.org. Archived from the original on 21 July 2011. Retrieved 20 November 2010.
1 2 3 4 "Bid to save WWI heroes' carriage". BBC News Online. 3 December 2009. Retrieved 11 November 2009.
↑ "The story of Captain Fryatt [transcription]". Great Eastern Railway Magazine. September 1916. pp. 216–228. Archived from the original on 5 June 2011 – via University of York, Institute of Railway Studies and Transport History.
↑ "Captain Charles Fryatt". Great War Primary Documents Archive. 24 April 2002. Retrieved 8 December 2009.
↑ "an account of Fryatt's arrest, trial and execution, provided by crewmembers of the Brussels [transcription]". Great Eastern Railway Magazine. October 1918. pp. 189–190. Archived from the original on 5 June 2011 – via University of York, Institute of Railway Studies and Transport History.
1 2 "The Unknown Warrior". BBC History. Retrieved 20 November 2010.
↑ Lennon, Sam. "Unknown Warrior's historic WW1 train carriage to be unveiled". Kent Online. Kent Messenger Group. Archived from the original on 29 September 2012. Retrieved 10 November 2010.
↑ "Homewood School". Kent and East Sussex Railway. Archived from the original on 24 November 2010. Retrieved 11 November 2010.
↑ "Edith Cavell's railway carriage displayed in Norfolk for first time". BBC News. 4 October 2015. Retrieved 4 October 2015.