Cavell EdithLIFE Photo Collection
Discover how Cavell became the most prominent British female casualty of World War I
The story of Edith Cavell (1865–1915) is one entrenched in heroism and tragedy. Cavell was a British nurse during World War I and is celebrated for saving the lives of soldiers from both sides without discrimination, and for helping around 200 allied soldiers escape from German-occupied Belgium during the war. This incredible act was illegal in German military law and saw Cavell be arrested and soon after accused of war treason. An investigation occurred and she was found guilty by a court-martial and sentenced to death.
Despite the public outrage and international pressure for mercy, Cavell was shot by a German firing squad on October 12, 1915. Cavell’s execution received worldwide condemnation and extensive press coverage. Cavell’s selfless act has remained an important part of the history of World War I, so read on ahead to learn about her life and the legacy she left behind.
Born in 1865 in the village Swardeston, near Norwich, United Kingdom, Cavell was the eldest of four and her father was the local reverend. Post-education, Cavell became a governess for various families, including one in Brussels. Cavell returned home in 1895 to care for her father during a serious illness, and the experience led her to become a nurse once he recovered.
In 1896, aged 30, Cavell began her training at the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel, under Matron Eva Lückes, a friend of Florence Nightingale. After completing her nurse training in 1898, she held a number of roles in British hospitals before being invited back to Brussels to nurse a sick child. Cavell was then invited to be matron of the first nursing school in Belgium, L'École Belge d'Infirmières Diplômées'. By 1910, using her experience, Cavell set about launching the nursing journal L’infirmiere as well as being a training nurse for three hospitals, 24 schools, and 13 kindergartens in Belgium.
When World War I broke out, Cavell was visiting her then-widowed mother in Norfolk. She returned to Brussels, where her clinic and nursing school had been taken over by the Red Cross. In November 1914, after the German occupation of Brussels, Cavell’s desire to help went further than ever. The nurse began sheltering British soldiers and transporting them out of occupied Belgium to the neutral Netherlands.
Cavell EdithLIFE Photo Collection
The process was less than simple though. Wounded British and French soldiers, as well as Belgian and French civilians of military age, were hidden from the Germans and provided with false papers by Prince Réginald de Croÿ at his chateau of Bellignies near Mons. From there, they were guided to various houses in Brussels, including Cavell’s. The hosts would give them enough money to reach the Dutch frontier and provide them with guides on the other side. Cavell’s involvement, while honorable, meant she was in direct violation of German military law. At first, German authorities couldn’t find anything directly incriminating, but they were increasingly suspicious of the nurse’s activities.
On August 3, 1915, after an investigation focused on Cavell and the other hosts involved, she was arrested for harbouring Allied soldiers. She had been betrayed by Gaston Quien, who was later convicted by a French court as a collaborator. Cavell was held in prison for 10 weeks, the last 2 of which were spent in solitary confinement.
In the three depositions she made to the German police, Cavell admitted she had conveyed around 60 British and 15 French soldiers, as well as about 100 French and Belgian civilians to the frontier after having sheltered many of them in her own house.
In her court-martial, Cavell was prosecuted for aiding soldiers and civilians to cross the Dutch border to eventually enter Britain. She admitted her guilt when she signed a statement the day before the trial. The penalty under German military law was death.
Cavell EdithLIFE Photo Collection
Despite national outcry, the British government was unable to do anything to help her. Sir Horace Rowald of the Foreign Office said: “I am afraid that it is likely to go hard with Miss Cavell; I am afraid we are powerless”. Other countries like the United States put pressure on Germany to pardon Cavell, saying her “complete honesty” and the fact she’d “saved so many lives, German as well as Allied” meant she shouldn’t get a death sentence. However, General von Sauberzweig, the military governor of Brussels ordered that the death penalty against Cavell should be immediate. She was one of five defendants who were sentenced to death for similar crimes.
The night before her execution, Reverend Stirling Gahan, was allowed to see Cavell to give her Holy Communion. She was quoted as saying: “Patriotism is not enough. I must have no hatred or bitterness towards anyone”. These words were inscribed on her statue in St Martin’s Place, near Trafalgar Square, London. Her final words to the German Lutheran prison chaplain, Paul Le Seur, were recorded as: “Ask Father 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”.
Cavell was executed on October 12, 1915 by German firing squad. In the months and years following her death numerous newspaper articles, pamphlets, images, and books publicised her story, particularly in Britain and the United States. She was often used as a propaganda figure for military recruitment in Britain, mainly to help increase favourable sentiment towards the Allies in the United States. She became the most prominent British female casualty of the First World War.
Cavell EdithLIFE Photo Collection
In 1917, the funds raised by two national newspapers in memory of Cavell were dedicated to the creation of at least 6 rest homes for nurses around England. Many nurses had suffered in the war and needed time to recover and long-term care. The Cavell family had suggested this as Cavell herself had mentioned she would like to provide this kind of care when she retired. Today this work is still going on under the Cavell Nurses Trust.
This is one of many memorials in the form of statues, monuments, and plaques in Britain and beyond created to honour the life and work of Cavell. She has also been immortalised in books, music, television, and film over the decades. The story of Cavell, a tale of martyrdom and heroism undercut by sorrow is an important one not just because it illustrates the destructive nature of war, but rather it demonstrates the selfless nature of Cavell and her ability to see soldiers and civilians from neighbouring countries as human beings worth saving.
Cavell EdithLIFE Photo Collection
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