Edith Cavell



Edith Louisa Cavell (December 4, 1865–October 12, 1915) was a British World War I nurse and humanitarian. She is celebrated for helping hundreds of Allied soldiers escape from German-occupied Belgium. Her subsequent execution received significant sympathetic press coverage worldwide.

Early life and career
Edith Cavell was born in 1865 at Swardeston in Norfolk, England, where her father, the Reverend Frederick Cavell, was vicar for 45 years. She trained as a nurse at the Royal London Hospital and in 1907 was appointed matron of the Berkendael Institute, founded by Antoine Depage, in Brussels, Belgium. When World War I broke out, the hospital was taken over by the Red Cross. On 10 October 1907, Antoine Depage founded L'École d'Infirmière Dimplonier, and Edith Cavell became the first director of this new nursing school.

World War I and execution


Nurse Cavell helped hundreds of soldiers from the Allied forces to escape from occupied Belgium to the neutral Netherlands, in violation of military law. In 1915, she was arrested and court-martialled by the Germans for this offence. UK and U.S. diplomats disagreed about whether anything could be done to help her case, with Sir Horace Rowland, from the Foreign Office suggesting "I am afraid that it is likely to go hard with Miss Cavell, I am afraid we are powerless." The sentiment was echoed by Lord Robert Cecil, who joined the coalition government in 1915 as an under secretary for foreign affairs after working for the Red Cross. "Any representation by us," he advised, "will do her more harm than good."

Representing the United States, which had not yet joined the war, Hugh Gibson, First Secretary of the American legation at Brussels, made clear to the German government that executing Cavell would further harm their nation's already damaged reputation. In a statement issued afterward, he noted: "'We reminded him (Baron von der Lancken) of the burning of Louvain and the sinking of the Lusitania, and told him that this murder would stir all civilized countries with horror and disgust. Count Harrach broke in at this with the rather irrelevant remark that he would rather see Miss Cavell shot than have harm come to one of the humblest German soldiers, and his only regret was that they had not 'three or four English old women to shoot.''"

She made no defense, admitting her actions, and was executed by firing squad at 2am on October 12, becoming a popular martyr and entering British history as a heroine. The execution took place at the Tir National, a State military site (today a memorial, near the State television buildings), where she was buried. Edith Cavell's case became an important article of British propaganda throughout the war. The German medical officer assisting was the expressionist poet Gottfried Benn (1886–1956), who gave an account of the event.

The night before her execution she told the Anglican chaplain, Rev. Gahan, who had been allowed to see her and to give her Holy Communion, "Patriotism is not enough, I must have no hatred or bitterness towards anyone." These words are inscribed on her statue in St. Martin's Place, near Trafalgar Square in London.

Her final words to the German pastor, Le Saur, were recorded as "Ask Mr. Gahan to tell my loved ones later on that my soul, as I believe, is safe, and that I am glad to die for my country."

After the war, Edith Cavell's body was exhumed and returned to the UK. A memorial service at Westminster Abbey led by King George V was followed by travel by special train to Thorpe Station, Norwich. She was reburied on Life's Green, at the east end of Norwich Cathedral. Every year a service is held before the grave.

Memorials




Following her death, many memorials were created around the world to remember Cavell. One of the first occurred in 1917 when Queen Alexandra unveiled a monument near her grave in Norwich in front of a home for nurses which also bore her name.

Other memorials include:
 * A stone memorial, including a statue of Cavell, adjacent to Trafalgar Square in London.
 * An inscription on a war memorial, naming the 35 people executed by the German Army outside the gaol in which they were killed.
 * Mount Edith Cavell, a peak in the Canadian Rockies, named in 1916.
 * Rue Edith Cavell, a street in Brussels, Belgium.
 * Edith Cavell Boulevard, a road in Port Stanley, Ontario.
 * Cavell Corona, a geological feature on Venus.
 * Hospitals in Peterborough and the Brussel's borough of Uccle (Ukkel), a wing of the Toronto Western Hospital, schools in Vancouver, British Columbia (Edith Cavell Elementary School), St. Catharines, Ontario, Moncton, New Brunswick and Bedford, England, a building at the University of Queensland,a street in Hillbrow, Johannesburg, South Africa and a bridge in New Zealand.
 * The Edith Cavell Trust was established by the New South Wales Nurses' Association which provides scholarships to nurses in NSW.
 * The Edith Cavell Nursing Scholarship Fund is a philanthropy of the Dallas County Medical Society Alliance Foundation and provides scholarships to exceptional nursing students in Dallas, Texas and the surrounding area.
 * A street in Port Louis, Mauritius.
 * A car park in Peterborough.
 * A middle school in Windsor, Ontario which closed in 1987.

Edith became a popular French and Belgian girls' name after her execution. The French chanteuse Édith Piaf, born two months after she was executed, was the best known.