Within Peterborough Cathedral is a memorial to Edith Cavell the British Nurse who was executed by the Germans for giving aid to the enemy.

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

See also Edith Cavell Memorial, London

About the sculptor

The memorial was sculpted by Mahomet Thomas Phillips who was an ecclesiastical sculptor from around 1898 until 1941.

Mahomet did much work that has not been officially accredited to him and I am hoping to change this. I have photographic evidence of Mahomet working on this piece and wondered if you would consider giving accreditation for this work on you site? I am in correspondence with the Imperial War Museum also, concerning Mahomet's work on a number of war memorials that he worked on. To date he has only been accredited with the Grantham war memorial.

Mahomet was born in Cabinda, West Africa, in 1876 to an English father and Portuguese/Congolese mother. He came to England around 1885-6 and went to school in Manchester and later studied and worked for the well known sculptor George Walker Milburn of York. Later Mahomet moved to Tottenham, London, before spending the war years in the Royal Field Artillery.

Following WW1 Mahomet continued his sculpting and one of his first commissions in 1920 was the War Memorial in Sleaford, Lincolnshire.

Around this time he moved to Helpston near Peterborough and later to Stamford. Mahomet worked on a number of projects independently and for companies such as J. Thompson & Son, Peterborough and Bowman & Son, Stamford, where he became head of sculpting and is accredited with works in the Cathedrals' of Bradford, Chelmsford, Southwark, Manchester and Peterborough. As well as works in St Mary Magdalene Church, Munster Square, London, St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, St. Martins Church, Stamford, St. Martin of Tours in Epsom and various other churches around England.

During his career Mahomet worked with a number of well known architects including Sir Giles Scott and Sir Charles Nicholson.

In 1923 Mahomet was employed working on 'The Kings Beasts' for the parapet of St. George's Chapel, Windsor Castle and amongst his other work, Mahomet carved the Edith Cavell memorial in Peterborough Cathedral, the font cover in Lambeth Cathedral, the figures for the reredos of the Anglican Cathedral of St. John the Baptist, Newfoundland, the reredos of St. Mary Magdalene, Munster Square, London, the finial and the figure of St. Peter on the Bishop Boyd Carpenter memorial in Bradford Cathedral and the new screen in St. Martins Church, Stamford. As well as numerous works in churches from Surrey, Essex, Cambridgeshire, Lincolnshire and Leicester.