City of Khaki

06/12/1914

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Today men from the 5th Essex Regiment, the East Anglians, the Norfolk & Suffolk Army Service Corps, the Norfolk Regiment and the East Anglian Field Ambulance attended a church service in St John's. With over 3,000 troops in winter training quarters locally, many people commented that Peterborough had become a 'city of khaki'. (Bull, J & V., Perry, S. and Sturgess, R., Peterborough - a third portrait in old picture postcards, S.B. Publications, 1990)

Taken from The Peterborough Book of Days by Brian Jones, The History Press, 2014.

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Edith Cavell Commemorated

09/12/1916

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Edith Cavell spent only a short part of her life here in Peterborough - working in a pupil/teacher capacity at Miss Gibson's school in Laurel Court. It was here that she learned and mastered the French language that proved so useful to her in Belgium. She was not forgotten in Peterborough, and was rapidly accepted as a Peterborian following her death. It was on this day in 1916 that an Irish blue marble plaque in her memory was unveiled by Dean Page in Peterborough Cathedral. This is widely believed to be the first commemoration stone/plaque in the country dedicated to her. It reads:

Right dear in the sight of the Lord is the death of His Saints. In thankful remembrance of the Christian example of Edith Louisa Cavell who devoted her life to nursing the sick and for helping Belgian French and British soldiers to escape was on October 12th 1915 put to death by the Germans at Brussels where she had nursed their wounded this Tablet was placed here by the Teachers Pupils and Friends of her old School in Laurel Court.

As well as this plaque, Edith is remembered in the name of Peterborough's modern hospital complex and a city-centre car park. (Liquorice, Mary, Posh Folk: Notable Personalities (and a Donkey) Associated with Peterborough, Cambridgeshire Libraries, 1991: People of Peterborough, Peterborough Museum Publications, 2009)

Taken from The Peterborough Book of Days by Brian Jones, The History Press, 2014.