Certain events of the First World War stood out in the public consciousness, were huge
propaganda opportunities, and caused a great public outcry. The sinking of the Lusitania
springs to mind, but one that meant far more to an empire that was actually at war was
the execution of British nurse Edith Cavell.
I’m Indy Neidell; welcome to a Great War bio special episode of “Who did what in
world war one?” Today my star is Edith Cavell.
Edith Louisa Cavell was born December 5, 1865 in Norfolk, England. Her parents were the
Reverend Frederick Cavell and Louisa Sophia. Edith was the eldest of four children. She
was educated in the local vicarage and did not attend the local school, but later went
to Norwich High School for girls. After school she worked as a governess, including a five-year
stint in Brussels, before training as a nurse at the London Hospital.
In 1907, she was recruited as matron of a newly established nursing school in Brussels.
Although by modern standards it was anything but modern- there was no running water in
the bedrooms of the 50 some odd patients and only one operating theater- it was very successful
in introducing modern nursing techniques to Belgium.
When the war broke out, Edith was not actually in Belgium, but was visiting her mother, now
a widow, in Norfolk. Against the wishes of her family and friends she returned to Brussels,
feeling that her nursing skills would now be more needed than ever.
Brussels was occupied by the German army on August 20th, 1914 and wounded men- German,
French, Belgian, British- began to pour into Edith’s clinic, which became a Red Cross
hospital for all nationalities. 60 British nurses were sent home, but Edith and her assistant
remained. Over the following week as the German invasion of Belgium continued, many Allied
soldiers found themselves trapped behind enemy lines. Some were executed when they were caught
and there were a number of atrocities against civilians at this time.
Cavell took it upon herself to aid British servicemen, hiding them in the hospital and
in safe houses around Belgium. She helped some 200 British soldiers escape to neutral
Holland. Now, she continued, of course, to work as a nurse, treating soldiers from both
sides, even as the occupying Germans threatened strict punishments for anyone actively aiding
and abetting the enemy.
She did not tell her co-workers what she was doing, not wanting to get anyone in trouble
with the Germans, and though she kept a private diary, it was sewn into a cushion to protect
her secret life. Still, in mid 1915 she came under suspicion, and on August 5th was arrested
and put in St. Gilles prison.
She would spend ten weeks in prison, and at her trial she admitted her guilt of the crimes
with which she was charged. She was sentenced to death. Diplomats from neutral Spain and
the United States tried to intercede to have her sentence commuted, but it was in vain.
The night before her execution on October 12th, 1915, she told her chaplain, “...this
I would say, standing as I do in view of God and eternity: I realize that patriotism is
not enough. I must have no hatred or bitterness toward anyone.”
She was actually one of a group of five people sentenced to death, and her execution together
with Philippe Baucq by firing squad was carried out early in the morning. She completed her
diary with the entry, “died at 7 AM on the 12th of October 1915.”
Here’s the thing. Cavell- well, and Baucq- were sentenced on the 11th, only one day before
the execution was carried out. Cavell herself didn’t find out she was to be shot until
8:30 the night of the 11th. See General von Sauberzweig, the German military governor
of Brussels, figured that if he hurried the execution, the media wouldn’t pick up on
it. He was wrong. The moment Edith Cavell the nurse died, Edith Cavell the heroine and
martyr was born. The American Embassy among others made sure that the story was widely
spread and it was hyped in both the British and American media, where Cavell was portrayed
as a martyr and those who executed her as murdering monsters. This was, in point of
fact, contrary to Cavell’s own last wishes, when she specifically said she did not wish
to be remembered as either martyr or heroine, but simply as a nurse doing her duty.
Over the following two months, Cavell’s fate helped double recruiting in Britain,
and her name became one of Britain’s wartime rallying symbols.
Hey, here’s a side note that you can take any way you like:
That same autumn the French executed two German nurses who were helping German soldiers escape,
and when asked why they didn’t publicize this similarly to Cavell’s execution, the
German High Command replied, “Why complain? The French had a perfect right to shoot them.”
After the War, Cavell’s body was taken back to Britain for a memorial service at Westminster
Abbey and then transferred to Norwich, to be laid to rest at Life's Green on the east
side of the cathedral. The King had to grant an exception to an order that prevented any
burials in the grounds of the cathedral to allow Cavell’s reburial.
In the Church of England's calendar of saints, the day appointed for the commemoration of
Edith Cavell is the 12th of October. This is a memorial in her honor, though, and not
any sort of formal canonization, and so not a "saint's feast day" in the traditional sense.
Following Cavell's death, many memorials were created around the world to remember her.
One of the first was unveiled on October 12, 1918 by Queen Alexandra on the grounds of
Norwich Cathedral, during the opening ceremony for a home for nurses, which also bore Edith
Cavell’s name.
The first film made of the story was the 1916 Australian silent film “The Martyrdom of
Nurse Cavell”. She’s also been honored by Mount Edith Cavell in Jasper National Park
in Alberta, Canada, and Edith Cavell is featured on a UK commemorative £5 silver coin, part
of a limited set issued this year- 2015- by the Royal Mint.
Edith Cavell was a vicar's daughter, an English matron of a teaching hospital, and a fairly
influential pioneer of modern nursing in Belgium. Her strong Christian beliefs motivated her
to help all those in need, both German and Allied soldiers. She once said, "I can't stop
while there are lives to be saved“. But of course no one remembers that today, do
they? Her execution by the Germans remains one of the more shocking episodes of the First
World War and received worldwide condemnation and extensive press coverage, and while you
may believe her execution to be justified or not, it showcased the effect propaganda
could have upon civilians, but also the effect the war itself was having on civilians in
the actual theaters of war.
And news flash! Seriously, I have a news flash. Now, this episode was edited from notes on
November 12, 2015. The very next day Flo our social media guy found a recent article from
the Telegraph that writes that Edith Cavell was actually spying for Britain and passing
along German military secrets. Dame Stella Rimington, former director-general of MI5,
asserts Cavell was indeed passing along intelligence. Actually, the German governor of Belgium at
the time, Moritz von Bissing- who had an awesome mustache, maintained at the time that she
was a spy and that was the justification for her death. It seems he may well have been
right. You can find a link to that article in the comments section.
The actions taken against civilians in Belgium in August and September 1914 are often called
“the rape of Belgium”, and you can see our episode covering that right here...
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