I saw it while driving by numerous times, but following a short meeting this week in the vicinity, I decided to go and take a proper look.
It is very beautiful. It is next to the lakes, in the shade, and surrounded by flowers. There are several features, but the dying soldier being tended by an angel I found especially moving.
This is a memorial to local people who died. And as I scanned the many names on the memorial, one sent a shiver down my spine. Miss Cavell. This is, of course, Nurse Edith Cavell, who was shot by the Germans in Brussels in 1915. Her crime was to tend to the wounded on both sides, and to help displaced and injured soldiers to return to their own lines. As I schoolboy I learned about her, she is a national heroine.
At St Martin's Place, near to Charing Cross station in London, there is a fitting memorial to Nurse Cavell. I wonder, is she also the angel depicted on this memorial?
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