LATE NURSE CAVELL

Otago Daily Times, Issue 17636, 28 May 1919, Page 5

LATE NURSE CAVELL

MINERAL SERVICE IN LONDON. AN IMPRESSIVE CEREMONY. A POSTHUMOUS DECORATION. LONDON, May 15 (delayed). Nurse Cavell's funeral service at Westminster Abbey was the most outstanding women's demonstration held during the war. There has been nothing like it since Queen Victoria's fuueral. The ilags on the Government offices were at half-mast, aiid the streets crowded with women, who outnumbered the men fivefold. The Coldstream Guards met tho coffin at Victoria station, and placed it' on a guncarriage xcovered with the Union Jack, on which lay a single wreath. The Guards escorted it to the west door of tho Abbey, where there was a remarkable gathering. A number of privileged people were accommodated in the choir, including Queen Alexandra, Princess Victoria, members of Cabinet, ambassadors, the High Commissioners and Agents-general, and loading military and naval officers. Australian nurses were prominent in the nave, also big delegations of W.A.A.C.'s, W.R.E.N.'s, aaid Air Force girls, Rod Cross nurses, and representatives of every department of women's activity in the war. The aijthems, prayers, and lessons emphasised the dominant note 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 Cavell repeated just before her execution. The service closed with the Dead March in " Saul" and the "Last Post." The gun-carriage, escorted by the Coldstreams, moved along the Embankment through the city. Hie Lord Mayor of London saluted it from the Mansion House. There were tremendous crowds en route to Liverpool station, whence it was taken to Norwich and buried in a corner of the Cathedral close, called " Life's Green," under the shadow of the memorial chapel to those who died in the war.—A and N.Z. Cable. LONDON, May 15 (delayed). President Poincare has bestowed the posthumous decoration of Chevalier of the Legion of Honour on the late Nurse Cavell.—A. and N.Z. Cable.