A SPECIAL train has been organised to take passengers to Harwich to see a historic funeral carriage.

The Cavell Van, which brought the town's hero Captain Charles Fryatt's body back home after he was executed in the First World War, is set to be on show from July 5 to 13.

It will be at the Harwich Mayflower Heritage Centre in George Street for the first time to mark the 100th anniversary of his body's return home.

To coincide with the display, the Essex and Suffolk Community Rail Partnership has organised a themed train to run from Manningtree to Harwich.

Teri Ryland, from the partnership, said: "The train will be at 11am on the Saturday, July 6.

"It will be decorated and have a Captain Charles Fryatt expert on board and the Dovercourt Theatre Group."

The Cavell Van famously repatriated three bodies after the war - nurse Edith Cavell, the unknown warrior, and Captain Fryatt.

Fryatt was executed for refusing to surrender and forcing a German U-boat to crash dive.

His coffin was exhumed from its grave in Bruges and transported from Antwerp to Dover with full military honours on July 8, 1919.

As Chopin’s Funeral March was played, the coffin was carried to Dover station, and from there taken to London for a state funeral service at St Paul’s Cathedral before his body was brought back to Dovercourt where he was buried at All Saints churchyard in Main Road.