One of the most harrowing stories of the First World War was the fate that
a British nurse suffered at the hands of a German firing Squad. Today Edith
Cavell is considered a hero in Britain, and a woman who gave her life in the face of evil.
She was accused of almost being a spy, and being a woman who during the German
occupation of Brussels sheltered British soldiers and helped them escape to the neutral Netherlands.
She also helped French soldiers, and through her role as a nurse she was able to do this.
She continued for almost a year harbouring Allied soldiers, but then she was betrayed and despite
international law guaranteeing protection for medical personnel, this protection was said
to have been invalidated due to her actions in helping the military in an underhand capacity.
But because of this, she then faced a firing squad and was brutally executed.
Join us today as we look at the horrific execution of Edith Cavell,
and remember to support our channel, please make sure to subscribe.
Edith Cavell was originally from Norfolk and she received a good education,
and she then worked as governess for a family in Brussels from 1890 to 1895. However she then
came back to England to care for her father, and after he recovered she sought a career as a nurse.
She worked in a number of London hospitals, and dealt with typhoid epidemics which were sweeping
through areas including Maidstone and she helped to co-ordinate the nursing operations to deal with
this. Following her training she was employed as a private nurse and she treated patients in
their homes, and she then became the assistant matron of St Leonard’s infirmary in Shoreditch.
But after a number of years nursing in England in 1907 Edith
was recruited to be a matron of a newly established nursing school in Brussels.
She then launched a nursing journey, and she was skilled as a trainer of
nurses and she worked at a large number of schools and was seen as a brilliant teacher.
But as the First World War broke out she was visiting her mother after her father’s passing,
and she then went back to Brussels and her clinic and school was taken over by the Red Cross.
Edith continued to work in this hospital, however in November 1914 after the German occupation of
Brussels, she began to shelter British soldiers and to them help them escape being a prisoner of
war. They would be injured on the battlefield, and brought to the hospital for treatment,
before they were sent to prisoner of war camps. Edith helped many escape this fate, and she helped
to organise transport for them to then escape Belgium through the neutral Netherlands where
they could then be helped to go back to Britain, or the front line if they desired. The hospital
she was working at were treating casualties from both sides as well as civilians. But following the
Battle of Mons she helped to smuggle two soldiers after treatment to The Netherlands and she then
began an important member of a network of people who sheltered allied soldiers and Belgians able
for military service and she helped their escape. It’s believed she helped around 200
soldiers for the Allied war effort, and these wounded soldiers were hidden from the germans.
They were then given false papers by Prince Reginald de Croy at his chateau near to Mons.
Following this they were held in the homes of Cavell and others and their hosts would
give them some money to reach the Dutch border, and guides would help them do this. But Edith
Cavell in doing this was in violation of German military law, and they grew suspicious of her.
On the 3rd August 1915, she was arrested and was charged with harbouring allied soldiers after she
had been betrayed by a collaborator. Inside the prison at Saint Gilles she was held for 10 weeks,
with the final 2 being in solitary confinement. She admitted she had helped 60 British and 15
French soldiers, and also 100 French and Belgian civilians to the frontier and had sheltered many
inside of her home. She was brought to a court martial and was prosecuted for
helping British and French soldiers as well as young men who could fight against the Germans.
She signed a statement admitting her guilty the day before her trial,
and she said that a number of these soldiers wrote to her thanking her when they got back to Britain.
According to German law, ‘"in time of war, anyone who with the intention of aiding a hostile power,
or of causing harm to German or allied troops" anyone who committed crimes such
as Edith did were guilty of committing treason and were punishable by death.
But the First Geneva Convention normally guaranteed protection for nurses such as Edith,
but this was forfeited as it was deemed she was using her career as a cover to help the British
war effort. The British government had their hands tied and they could do nothing to help Edith,
and they said ‘I am afraid we are powerless.’ Some Germans actually believed she should have been
spared due to her honesty and the fact she saved lives, but its believed she was arrested for war
treason, and possibly may have been recruited by the British Secret Intelligence Service.
It was also considered that as she was questioned in French,
her trial was minuted in German and that this may have led to some misinterpretation of her words.
However her execution would go ahead, and this was considered by man to have been a war crime.
The night before her execution she told a minister who had given her the last Holy communion that,
‘Patriotism is not enough. I must have no hatred or bitterness to anyone,’ and these words were
inscribed on a statue of her in Trafalgar Square in London. On the 12th October 1915
she was taken from her prison to her site of execution, a firing range in Schaerbeek. A
priest who was an eyewitnesses described the final moments of Edith Cavell’s life, he said ‘When we
arrived at the Tir National, a company at full war strength (two hundred and fifty men) stood there,
in accordance with the regulations, under the command of a staff-officer.
A Military Court Councillor, Dr. Stoeber, with his secretary, Capt. Behrens, in command of St. Gilles
prison, an officer from the Commander’s office, and a medical man, Dr. Benn, were on the spot.
We clergymen led the condemned persons to the front. The company presented their rifles,
and the sentence was about to be read aloud in German and in French, when M. Baucq called out
with a clear voice in French: ‘Comrades, in the presence of death we are all comrades.’
He was not allowed to say anything more. The sentence was read out, and then the clergymen
were permitted to have a last word with the condemned persons. I thought I had to make this
as brief as possible. I took Miss Cavell’s hand and only said (of course in English) the words:
‘The Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the Communion of the Holy
Ghost be with you for ever. Amen.’ She pressed my hand in return, and answered in those words:
‘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.’ Then I led her a few steps to the pole, to which she was loosely bound.
A bandage was put over her eyes, which, as the soldier who put it on told me, were full of tears.
Then a few seconds passed, which appeared to me like eternity, because the Catholic clergyman
spoke somewhat longer with M. Baucq, until he also stood at his pole. Immediately the sharp
commands were given, two salvoes crashed at the same time — each of eight men at a
distance of six paces — and the two condemned persons sank to the ground without a sound.
My eyes were fixed exclusively on Miss Cavell, and what they now saw was terrible. With a face
streaming with blood — one shot had gone through her forehead — Miss Cavell had sunk down forwards,
but three times she raised herself up without a sound, with her hands stretched upwards. I ran
forward with the medical man, Dr. Benn, to her. He was doubtless right when he stated that these
were only reflex movements. The bullet-holes, as large as a fist in the back, proved, in addition,
that without any doubt she was killed immediately. I only mention this fact because untrue rumours
have been connected with it. A few minutes later the coffins were lowered into the graves,
and I prayed over Edith Cavell’s grave, and invoked the Lord’s blessing over her poor corpse.
Then I went home, almost sick in my soul. Finally, no soldier refused to shoot. The
military judge told me that before I arrived with Miss Cavell he addressed the soldiers,
saying it was hard for them to fire at a woman, but he wished to impress upon them
that she was not a mother. Nobody refused to shoot, and no interval of any kind occurred.
Edith Cavell’s remains after the war were returned to Britain, and she was only one
of three who’s set of remains were repatriated. Her body was subjected to a state funeral before
she was then reburied in Norwich Cathedral. She was a nurse who tried her best to help people
get back to Britain during the First World War, and she saved the lives of a number of soldiers
who may have perished in prisoner of war camps, or in executions. But ultimately at the end of
a firing squad, Edith Cavell was executed when she should probably have been saved.
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