David Jesse Tunmore

Sgt Tunmore was in the 1st Bn Norfolk Regiment, which formed part of the rearguard at Mons in August 1914. He became separated from the unit and slightly wounded, he was captured by the Germans.

Held in a convent, he managed to escape after several weeks, along with another soldier. They obtained civilian clothes in a nearby village and then met a Belgian who knew of Edith Cavell.

In Brussels they found her at the Institute. She sheltered them and provided them with money and passports. A new requirement meant that the passports were no longer of use, but with ingenuity and bribes they got across the frontier into Holland. They persuaded the Rotterdam police that they had been visiting Belgium when the Germans invaded.

The British Consul gave both men boat tickets for Harwich. They arrived back in England in January 1915.

Sgt Tunmore was one of a number of Norfolk Regiment men helped by Edith Cavell. He survived the war and was one of the pallbearers at her funeral in Norwich in 1918.