A historic train van currently on display in Folkestone was used to transport the Unknown Warrior back to England.

The Reverend David Railton was the curate at St Mary and St Eanswythe Parish Church in Folkestone, and lived in Millfield in the town from 1914 to 1920 and came up with the idea for the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior in Westminster Abbey after digging war graves in France.

The concept has since been adopted by 28 other countries and the group Go Folkestone has been raising funds for a heritage plaque to be installed on a building in Folkestone where he lived. It is now an elderly care home.

The van on display at the Harbour Arm was also used in the repatriation of the remains of Captain Charles Fryatt, a British mariner who was executed by the Germans for attempting to ram a U-boat in 1915, and nurse Edith Cavell.

At the end of the First World War the body of Edith Cavell was returned to England and taken by special train to London, where a memorial service was held.

She was shot by the Germans in Belgium in 1915. The carriage arrived in Folkestone, 103 years to the day of her execution, on Friday, October 12.

The Cavell Van contains displays and tributes to the trio, created by pupils from Homewood School in Tenterden, following a research project at the Imperial War Museum, London.

The van will be manned by volunteers from the town’s charity Step Short, the organisers behind Folkestone’s Memorial Arch, and the Remembrance Line, who are campaigning for greener rail transport within the new planned Seafront development to improve the town’s mobility for residents and visitors.

It will be open every day from 10am to 4pm until Sunday, October 28.

The Cavell Van is normally to be found at Bodiam Station, on the Kent and East Sussex Railway, and it will return to the railway for public display at Tenterden Town Station on Sunday 11, November from 10.30am to 12.30pm. Admission is free.

For further information about the history of the Cavell Van, visit www.kesr.org.uk/cavellvan