Preserving a unique part of railway history
Tenterden Students win Channel 4 Contest
History students from Homewood School and Sixth Form Centre in Tenterden have won this year’s ‘Schools Digital Challenge’ competition, in association with Channel 4.
Students, Tarn Hall, Jack Tate, Samantha Foreman and Charlotte Earl-Sayers, beat thousands of other schools to win the competition for their digital project about the history associated with the Cavell Van which is currently being restored by the Kent & East Sussex Railway in Tenterden. Their interpretation work was recognised as outstanding and the four students were invited to join other finalists at the annual British Interactive Media Association Challenge at Channel 4 last Thursday where they were subsequently declared winners for their work on the project.
The annual award is a competition for students aged 11 – 18, which is held in partnership with Channel 4 and other key industry organisations including Sky and Microsoft as part of a drive to inspire young people to get involved in the digital industry.
"The students' brief was to devise a digital solution that provided real practical benefits for their community," said Principal History Teacher Lesley Munro.
"The students gave a passionate and articulate presentation on their ideas to senior figures from industry, academia and government. They spoke about how their concept would be used to help educate visitors to the railway about the history associated with the Cavell Van which will be on display again when the restoration is complete in November 2010." said Lesley.
The students' work will be used in the final interpretation display at the railway to inform visitors of the key historical figures associated with the Cavell Van which carried the bodies of Nurse Edith Cavell and Captain Fryatt who were shot as spies by the Germans and also the unknown warrior who represents all the young men lost in World War One.
The winning pupils are looking forward to taking up their prize which includes a tour of Sky studios.
For more information about the Cavell Van project visit www.kesr.org.uk
or contact Caroline Edmunds at Pennington PR on 01892 616647
Notes to Editors:
The South Eastern & Chatham Railway passenger luggage van No.132, built in 1919, was donated to the Kent & East Sussex Railway by one of the railway's volunteers and will now be preserved thanks to a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) of £27,000 together with £7,000 raised towards the project from public donation.
The work began this summer with the aim to complete the restoration by 10 November 2010 – exactly ninety years after it carried the Unknown Warrior.
The Cavell Van's historic significance originates from its role in conveying, from Dover to London, the remains of three war heroes repatriated from Europe. The first of these sombre journeys was made during May 1919 when No.132 carried the body of nurse Edith Cavell. Thereafter, it became known to railway men as the Cavell Van.
In her early career Edith Cavell served as a staff nurse at The London Hospital in Whitechapel, eventually moving to Belgium as the director of a nurses' training school in Brussels. She remained there at the onset of the Great War and was soon helping allied soldiers escape the Germans. It was only a matter of time before she was arrested and when she confessed she was court-martialled and shot on October 12th 1915 for "assisting the enemy." She retained great dignity until the end - her final words ensuring her place as one of the war's foremost heroines:
"Standing, as I do, in the view of God and eternity, I realise that patriotism is not enough. I must have no hatred or bitterness towards anyone."
Two months after Edith's repatriation, Van 132 carried the remains of merchant seaman Captain Charles Fryatt. As master of the Brussels, Fryatt attained popular acclaim in March 1915 when, heading for Rotterdam, his vessel attempted to ram U-boat U33 instead of stopping, as ordered. Forcing it to dive, Fryatt thus made good his escape. The following year, however, bound for Tilbury, his ship was surrounded by destroyers and boarded. Fryatt was charged with attempting to ram U33; he was shot after a show trial.
Van No.132's most poignant duty though came in November 1920 when it conveyed the remains of the war's highest profile casualty – The Unknown Warrior. Since then, it has led a varied life, most recently arriving on the Kent & East Sussex Railway in 2004.
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