By coincidence ten years, almost to the day, since the unveiling of the Blue Plaque honouring famous Withernsea Actress Kay Kendall at her former home on Hull Road , there is to be the unveiling of another beautiful Blue Plaque : this time in memory of Withernsea Hospital Matron Florence Cavell, 1867-1950, outside her Withernsea home 227 Queen Street, just before you get to the Library.
Many residents will have fond memories of an extremely conscientious Nurse Florence Cavell coming to this Seaside Resort first as Hospital Matron for an astonishing 32 years 1913-45, then as flamboyant retiree until her untimely death not long after World War II ended. Indeed Withernsea Hospital, later its TB Sanatorium, later still its Convalescent Home and Minor Injury Unit, was called the Queen’s Hotel, 4-star, built by Anthony Bannister and his Hull & Holderness Railway Company when the Resort was being laid out from 1854 onwards.
Other residents will know Nurse Florence Cavell as Sister - alongside Florence Nightingale & Mary Seacole - of one of the founders of modern nursing as a profession: Nurse Edith Cavell, 1865-1915, martyred for assisting British & Allied Soldiers escape over the border between Brussels - where she was stationed as World War 1 broke out - and the non-combatant Netherlands. How this immense loss of friend, exemplar and confidante must have affected Florence - also Florence’s surviving mother Louisa Sophie Warming in Norfolk - we can only imagine. Suffice it to say, Edith Cavell remains one of the most famous and revered names in 20th. Century history. And both Edith & Florence Cavell left their quiet country Vicarage lives to train at the Royal London Hospital where the unveiler herself, Withernsea Midwife Doris Cook also qualified.
DO come along to the unveiling of this Plaque by Doris Cook in the presence of former Withernsea Mayoress Lyn Healing, generously assisted by Withernsea Town Council and the house’s current owner the distinguished designer & photographer Darrin Stevens, at 14-45 for 15-00 on Saturday September 14th., when by another coincidence, the ancient Church of St. Nicholas , opposite, is open as part of Hull’s Heritage Open Days’ programme.
Godfrey Holmes… together with 4 historic photographs… Kay Kendall’s deliberate not accidental! And intentionally NO image of the F.M.S.C. Plaque itself!
