Google Doodle honours Edith Cavell

Google has paid a digital tribute to Norfolk nurse and First World War heroine Edith Cavell on what would have been her 153rd birthday. The brave nurse, who is buried at Norwich Cathedral, is the subject of the December 4 Google Doodle, the bespoke artwork on the internet giant's homepage which changes each day to reflect an important event or anniversary.

The special Google Doodle has led to the story of Nurse Cavell being featured by newspapers and other media outlets around the world.

Nurse Cavell, who was born in Swardeston in 1865, helped more than 200 First World War soldiers escape from occupied Belgium where she was head matron of Belgium’s first nurse training school in Brussels.

For this she was executed by a German firing squad on October 12 1915.

On the night before her death she famously said: "Standing as I do in view of God and eternity, I realise that patriotism is not enough. I must have no hatred or bitterness for anyone."

Every year in October a memorial service takes place beside Nurse Cavell’s final resting place at Norwich Cathedral.

A statue of Nurse Cavell also stands outside Norwich Cathedral’s Erpingham Gate and, to mark the 100th anniversary of the statue's unveiling by Queen Alexandra, a new interpretation board sharing Nurse Cavell's story was unveiled this year.

On Google's latest digital tribute to Nurse Cavell, the Revd Dr Peter Doll, Canon Librarian and Vice Dean, said: "For a woman who thought of herself simply as a 'nurse who tried to do her duty', Edith Cavell would undoubtedly have been disconcerted by the worldwide attention she's receiving as the subject of a 'Google Doodle'.

"For us at Norwich Cathedral, where she is buried and where we see her as a modern-day saint and martyr who walked in the footsteps of Christ even to giving her life for others, we can only be glad at this very 21st-century version of canonisation."