Edith Cavell’s Story
“But this I would say, standing as I do in view of God and Eternity, I realise that patriotism is not enough, I must have no hatred or bitterness toward anyone.”
Edith Cavell was born on 4th December 1865, in Swardeston in Norfolk. Her father was the local vicar.
St Mary’s Church, Swardeston
Edith had two sisters and a brother – Florence, Lilian and John. When she was growing up in Swardeston she loved ice-
Edith is educated at home in the vicarage with her younger siblings, Florence, Lilian and John
skating, drawing and painting flowers and walking the family dogs. She wasn’t so keen on her father’s sermons – in fact, she once wrote a letter to her cousin telling him not to come and visit at the weekend so that he would not have to come to church! In 1890, Edith went to work in Brussels as a governess with a family called Francois. She learned to speak French during her time there.
Edith as a governess in Brussels
In 1895, Edith’s father became ill and she returned home to look after him. She found that she liked nursing and went to work at the Fountains Fever Hospital in Tooting. Then, in 1896 she went to train at the London Hospital. The lady who trained Edith said that she was very able but did not always exert herself, and that she was often late! But Edith won a medal for her work during an outbreak of typhoid fever in 1897.
A Maidstone Medal like the one Edith received
Edith worked in many different places in Britain until 1907, when she returned to Brussels. She was to be in charge of a training school for nurses – one of the first of its kind. She trained many, many
A class of nurses that Edith trained at the nursing school in Brussels
nurses and gave lectures to doctors and nurses, but she still found time to care for her two beloved dogs, Don and Jack. When War broke out in 1914, Edith was at home in England on a visit to her mother – her father had died some time before. She returned to Belgium right away. She said, ‘At a time like this, I am more needed than ever.’ The clinic where Edith had worked before the war became a Red Cross
hospital. Edith treated Belgian and German soldiers. In Autumn 1914, the British and French armies had retreated after the Battle of Mons, but two British soldiers found their way to Edith Cavell’s hospital. They were spirited away to Holland, which was neutral. They would be able to get home from there. This was the start of an ‘underground’ system of smuggling soldiers out of Belgium through the hospital. Many soldiers were saved from
Picture of Edith as a nurse – Edit. Franco-Belge, 27, rue Bodeghem, Bruxelles 1915
becoming prisoners of war in this way. The staff of the hospital knew that they could be shot if the German army found out what they were doing.
In 1915, two people involved in smuggling soldiers out of Belgium from the hospital were arrested. Five days later, Edith Cavell was arrested too. She admitted what she had done. She was sentenced to death. There was an international outcry, but Edith Cavell was shot in the early hours of 12th October 1915. She said, ‘I realise that patriotism is not enough, I must have no hatred or bitterness towards anyone.’ There is a story that one of the firing
Picture of Edith’s execution – Edit. Franco-Belge, 27, rue Bodeghem, Bruxelles 1915
squad refused to take part in the shooting of Nurse Cavell, and that he was shot too.
A huge outcry followed Edith’s death. She did not want to be remembered as a heroine – she wanted to be remembered as a nurse who did her duty. But her face appeared on posters all over the world,
Justice at the court of “Kultur” – designed by the famous Italian artist Tito Corbella
and many people believe that her death helped to make up the minds of American people that they should join the war against Germany.
Edith Cavell Propaganda stamp, created soon after her death
Today we remember Edith Cavell as both a nurse who did her duty, and as a heroine who laid down her life to help others.
Edith Cavell memorial in Tombland, near to Edith’s birthplace
Edith Cavell memorial in London
Find more World War 1 resources at www.readingwar.co.uk