Edith Cavell
Edith Louisa Cavell (December 4, 1865 - October 12, 1915) is one of the few famous heroines of World War I.
Edith Cavell was born at Swardeston in Norfolk, where her father was rector, in 1865; she trained as a nurse. In 1907, she was appointed matron of the Berkendael Institute in Brussels in Belgium. When World War I broke out, the hospital was taken over by the Red Cross. Nurse Cavell is alleged to have helped hundreds of soldiers from the allied forces to escape from occupied Belgium to the Netherlands, in violation of military law. In 1915, she was arrested and court-martialled by the Germans for this offence. UK and US diplomats disagreed about whether anything could be done to help her case, with Sir Horace Rowland, from the Foreign and Commonwealth 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." She made no defence and was shot 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 televison buildings), where she was buried. Edith Cavell's case became an important article of British propaganda throughout the war [1]. 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 English chaplain, who had been allowed to see her, "I realise that 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.
After the war Edith Cavell was reburied in the grounds of Norwich Cathedral.
In 1916, Mount Edith Cavell in the Canadian Rockies was named in her honour. An important hospital of Brussels bears her name, too.
External Links
- Arthur Zimmerman on Edith Cavell's execution
- about the Brussels hospital (in French and Dutch language)
- [2] and [3] about the Brussels memorial
- Edith%20Cavell - Cavell's grave in Norwich
- http://www.stephen-stratford.co.uk/edith_cavell.htm
- http://www.edithcavell.org.uk/ - about a Cavell festival in mid-October in Norwich
- http://politics.guardian.co.uk/foi/story/0,9061,1589937,00.html - Guardian report about the release of foreign office memos relating to her arrest and death