Edith Cavell

Edith Louisa Cavell (4 December 1865 – 12 October 1915) was a British nurse. She is celebrated for saving the lives of soldiers from both sides without distinction and in helping some 200 Allied soldiers escape from German-occupied Belgium during World War I, for which she was arrested. She was subsequently court-martialled, found guilty of treason and sentenced to death. Despite international pressure for mercy, she was shot by a German firing squad. Her execution received worldwide condemnation and extensive press coverage.

She is well known for her statement that "patriotism is not enough". Her strong Anglican beliefs propelled her to help all those who needed it, both German and Allied soldiers. She was quoted as saying, "I can’t stop while there are lives to be saved." 12 October is appointed for her commemoration in the Anglican church, although this is not a "saint's feast day" in the traditional sense.

Edith Cavell, who was 49 at the time of her execution, was already notable as a pioneer of modern nursing in Belgium.

Early life and career


Edith Cavell was born on 4 December 1865 in Swardeston, a village near Norwich, where her father, the Reverend Frederick Cavell, was vicar for 45 years. She was the eldest of four children and was taught to always share with the less fortunate, despite her family’s meagre earnings. After a period as a governess, including for a family in Brussels 1900–1905, she trained as a nurse at the London Hospital under Matron Eva Luckes. In 1907, Cavell was recruited by Dr Antoine Depage to be matron of a newly established nursing school by the name of L'École Belge d’Infirmières Diplômées on the Rue de la Culture in Brussels. By 1910, "Miss Cavell "felt that the profession of nursing had gained sufficient foothold in Belgium to warrant the publishing of a professional journal," and therefore launched the nursing journal, L'infirmière". A year later, she was a training nurse for three hospitals, 24 schools, and 13 kindergartens in Belgium.

When World War I broke out, she was visiting her widowed mother in Norfolk in the East of England. She returned to Brussels where her clinic and nursing school were taken over by the Red Cross.

World War I and execution
In November 1914, after the German occupation of Brussels, Cavell began sheltering British soldiers and funnelling them out of occupied Belgium to the neutral Holland. Wounded and derelict British and French soldiers and Belgians and French of military age were hidden from the Germans and provided with false papers by Prince Reginald de Croy at his château of Bellignie near Mons. From there, they were conducted by various guides to the houses of Cavell, Louis Séverin and others in Brussels, and furnished by them with money to reach the Dutch frontier and with guides obtained through Philippe Baucq. This placed Cavell in violation of German military law. German authorities became increasingly suspicious of the nurse's actions, which were backed up by her outspokenness.

She was arrested on 3 August 1915 and charged with harbouring Allied soldiers. She had been betrayed by Gaston Quien, who was later convicted by a French court as a collaborator. She was held in St Gilles prison for 10 weeks, the last two in solitary confinement. She made three depositions to the German police, 8, 18 August, and 22, admitting that she had been instrumental in conveying about 60 British and 15 French derelict soldiers and about 100 French and Belgians of military age to the frontier and had sheltered most of them in her house.

In her court-martial she was prosecuted for aiding British and French soldiers, in addition to young Belgian men, to cross the border and enter Britain. She admitted her guilt when she signed a statement the day before the trial, thus reaffirming the crime in the presence of all other prisoners and lawyers present in the court at the beginning of the trial. Cavell gave the German prosecution a much stronger case against her when she declared that the soldiers she had helped escape thanked her in writing when arriving safely in Britain. This admission proved hard to ignore because it not only confirmed that Cavell had helped the soldiers navigate the Dutch frontier, but it also established that she helped them escape to a country at war with Germany.

As the case stood, the sentence according to German military law was death. Paragraph 58 of the German Military Code says: "Will be sentenced to death for treason any person who, with the intention of helping the hostile Power, or of causing harm to the German or allied troops, is guilty of one of the crimes of paragraph 90 of the German Penal Code." The case referred to in the above-mentioned paragraph 90 consists of "Conducting soldiers to the enemy." Additionally, the penalties according to paragraph 160 of the German Code, in case of war, apply to foreigners as well as Germans. Furthermore, this application of the German law was supported by the First Geneva Convention. While the Convention ordinarily guarantees protection of medical personnel, that protection is forfeit if it is used as cover for any belligerent action. This forfeiture is expressed in article 7 of the 1906 version of the Convention, which was the version in force at the time. Surprisingly from a modern perspective, little was made of the war crime status of her actions; as discussed below, the German authorities instead justified prosecution merely on the basis of the German law and the interests of the German state.

The British government said they could do nothing to help her. Sir Horace Rowland of the Foreign Office said, "I am afraid that it is likely to go hard with Miss Cavell; I am afraid we are powerless." Lord Robert Cecil, Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs, said, "Any representation by us", he advised, "will do her more harm than good." The United States, however, had not yet joined the war and was in a position to apply diplomatic pressure. Hugh S. Gibson, First Secretary of the U.S. legation at Brussels, made clear to the German government that executing Cavell would further harm Germany's already damaged reputation. Later, he wrote:

"We reminded [German civil governor Baron von der Lancken] of the burning of Louvain and the sinking of the Lusitania, and told him that this murder would rank with those two affairs and would stir all civilised countries with horror and disgust. Count Harrach broke in at this with the rather irrelevant remark that he would rather see Miss Cavell shot than have harm come to the humblest German soldier, and his only regret was that they had not "three or four old English women to shoot."

Baron von der Lancken is known to have stated that Cavell should be pardoned because of her complete honesty and because she had helped save so many lives, German as well as Allied. However, General von Sauberzweig, the military governor of Brussels, ordered that "in the interests of the State" the implementation of the death penalty against Baucq and Cavell should be immediate, denying higher authorities an opportunity to consider clemency. Cavell was defended by lawyer Sadi Kirschen from Brussels. Of the 27 put on trial, five were condemned to death: Cavell, Baucq (an architect in his thirties), Louise Thuliez, Séverin and Countess Jeanne de Belleville. Of the five sentenced to death, only Cavell and Baucq were executed; the other three were reprieved.

Cavell was not arrested for espionage, as many were led to believe, but for treason. She had in fact been recruited by the British Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), although she turned away from her espionage duties in order to help Allied soldiers escape.

When in custody, Cavell was questioned in French, but the session was minuted in German. This gave the interrogator the opportunity to misinterpret her answers. Although she may have been misrepresented, she made no attempt to defend herself. Cavell was provided with a defender approved by the German military governor. A previous defender, who was chosen for Cavell by her assistant, Elizabeth Wilkins, was ultimately rejected by the governor.

The night before her execution, she told the Reverend Stirling Gahan, the Anglican chaplain who had been allowed to see her and to give her Holy Communion, "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. 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."

From his sick bed Brand Whitlock, the U.S. minister to Belgium, wrote a personal note on Cavell's behalf to Moritz von Bissing, the governor general of Belgium. Hugh Gibson; Maitre G. de Leval, the legal adviser to the United States legation; and Rodrigo Saavedra y Vinent, 2nd Marques de Villalobar, the Spanish minister, formed a midnight deputation of appeal for mercy or at least postponement of sentence. Despite these efforts, on 11 October, Baron von der Lancken allowed the execution to proceed. Sixteen men, forming two firing squads, carried out the sentence pronounced on her and on four Belgian men at Tir National shooting range in Schaerbeek, at 7:00 am on 12 October 1915. There are conflicting reports of the details of Cavell's execution. However, according to the eyewitness account of the Reverend Le Seur, who attended Cavell in her final hours, eight soldiers fired at Cavell while the other eight executed Philippe Baucq.

There is also a dispute over the sentencing imposed under the German Military Code. Supposedly, the death penalty relevant to the offence committed by Cavell was not officially declared until a few hours after her death.

On instructions from the Spanish minister, Belgian women immediately buried her body next to St. Gilles Prison. After the War, her 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.

Role in World War I propaganda
In the months and years following Cavell's death, countless newspaper articles, pamphlets, images, and books publicised her story. She became an iconic propaganda figure for military recruitment in Britain, and to help increase favourable sentiment towards the Allies in the United States. She was a popular icon because of her sex, her nursing profession, and her apparently heroic approach to death. Her execution was represented as an act of German barbarism and moral depravity.

News reports shortly following Cavell's execution were found to be only true in part. Even the American Journal of Nursing repeated the fictional account of Cavell's execution in which she fainted and fell because of her refusal to wear a blindfold in front of the firing squad. Allegedly, while she lay unconscious, the German commanding officer shot her dead with a revolver. Numerous accounts like these stimulated international outrage and general anti-German sentiments.

Along with the invasion of Belgium, and the sinking of the Lusitania, Cavell's execution was widely publicised in both Britain and North America by Wellington House, the British War Propaganda Bureau.

Because of the British government's decision to use Cavell's story as propaganda, she became the most prominent British female casualty of World War I. The combination of heroic appeal and a resonant atrocity-story narrative made Cavell's case one of the most effective in British propaganda of World War I, as well as a factor in enduring post-war anti-German sentiment.

German response
Unlike the rest of the world, the German government thought that they had acted fairly towards Cavell. In a letter, German undersecretary for Foreign Affairs Dr. Alfred Zimmermann (not to be confused with Arthur Zimmerman, German Secretary for Foreign Affairs) made a statement to the press on behalf of the German government:

"It was a pity that Miss Cavell had to be executed, but it was necessary. She was judged justly...It is undoubtedly a terrible thing that the woman has been executed; but consider what would happen to a State, particularly in war, if it left crimes aimed at the safety of its armies to go unpunished because committed by women."

Their laws do not make distinctions between sexes, the only exception to this rule being that according to legal customs, women in a "delicate" (probably this means "pregnant") condition could not be executed; Cavell was not considered delicate. From the Germans' perspective, had they released Cavell, there would have been an influx of women partaking in acts against Germany because the women knew they would not be severely punished. It was up to the responsible men to follow their legal duty to Germany and ignore the world’s condemnation.

The German government also believed that all of the convicted people were thoroughly aware of the nature of their acts. The court paid particular attention to this point, releasing several accused persons because there was doubt as to whether the accused knew that their actions were punishable. The condemned, on the other hand, knew full well what they were doing and the punishment for committing their crimes because "numerous public proclamations had pointed out the fact that aiding enemies’ armies was punishable with death."

Two representations of Edith Cavell
Before the First World War, Cavell was not well known outside nursing circles. This allowed the creation of two different depictions of her in British propaganda, which ignored anything that did not fit this image, including the suggestion that Cavell, during her interrogation, had given information that incriminated others. In November 1915, the British Foreign Office issued a denial that Cavell had implicated anyone else in her testimony.

One image commonly represented was of Cavell as an innocent victim of a ruthless and dishonourable enemy. This view depicted her as innocent of espionage, and was most commonly used in various forms of British propaganda, such as postcards and newspaper illustrations during the war. Her story was presented in the British press as a means of fuelling a desire for revenge on the battlefield. These images implied that men must enlist in the armed forces immediately in order to stop the murder of innocent British females.

The second representation of Cavell during World War I described her as a serious, reserved, brave, and patriotic woman who devoted her life to nursing and died to save others. This portrayal has been illustrated in numerous biographical sources, from personal first-hand experiences of the Red Cross nurse. Pastor Le Seur, the German army chaplain, recalled at the time of her execution, "I do not believe that Miss Cavell wanted to be a martyr…but she was ready to die for her country… Miss Cavell was a very brave woman and a faithful Christian". Another account from British chaplain, the Reverend Mr Gahan, remembers Cavell's words, "I have no fear or shrinking; I have seen death so often it is not strange, or fearful to me!" In this interpretation, her stoicism was seen as remarkable for a woman, and brought her even greater renown than a man in similar circumstances would have received.

Burial and memorials


Cavell's remains were returned to Britain after the war and a state funeral was held at Westminster Abbey. On 19 May 1919, her body was reburied at the east side of Norwich Cathedral; a graveside service is still held each October. The railway van that conveyed her remains from Dover to London is kept as a memorial on the Kent and East Sussex Railway and is usually open to view at Bodiam railway station.

Following Cavell's death, many memorials were created around the world to remember her. One of the first was the one unveiled in October 1918 by Queen Alexandra on the grounds of Norwich Cathedral, near a home for nurses which also bore her name.

In the calendar of the Church of England the day appointed for the commemoration of Edith Cavell is 12 October. This is a memorial in her honour rather than formal canonisation.

Other honours include:

Memorials:
 * a stone memorial, including a statue of Cavell by George Frampton unveiled in 1920, adjacent to Trafalgar Square in London, UK
 * a stone memorial in Paris, one of two statues that Adolf Hitler ordered destroyed on his 1940 visit (the other being that of Charles Mangin)
 * a memorial in Peterborough Cathedral, Peterborough, UK
 * a memorial by Henry Alfred Pegram outside Norwich Cathedral, UK
 * a marble and stone memorial near The Shrine in Melbourne, Australia
 * an inscription on a war memorial, naming the 35 people executed by the German army in a place called Tir national on the Schaerbeek municipality
 * a dedication on the war memorial on the grounds of Sacred Trinity Church, Salford, Greater Manchester, UK
 * Monument to Edith Cavell and Marie Depage in Brussels, Belgium, by Paul Du Bois.
 * a stone memorial statue by Canadian sculptor R. Tait McKenzie in the garden behind the Red Cross National (U.S.) Headquarters, 1730 E Street, NW Washington, DC, USA, in the block south of the Corcoran Gallery of Art and north of the Daughters of the American Revolution building.

Medical and Nursing facilities named in her honour::
 * Edith Cavell Surgery in Streatham, London
 * Edith Cavell Hospital, in Peterborough, England, UK, where she received part of her education
 * the Edith Cavell Hospital in the Brussels borough of Uccle (Ukkel), Belgium
 * Sanatorium Edith Cavell, Obourg, Belgium
 * a wing of Homerton Hospital, Hackney, London, UK
 * a wing of Toronto Western Hospital, Canada
 * Cavell Building, Quinte Children's Treatment Centre, Belleville, Ontario, Canada
 * University of East Anglia, Norwich, named its School of Nursing Sciences building the Edith Cavell Building (ECB), when it opened in 2006
 * Edith Cavell Regional School of Nursing, in Belleville, Ontario, Canada
 * Edith Cavell Care Centre, Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada,
 * a ward in the Whittington Hospital in Archway, London
 * a building at the Medical School, University of Queensland, Australia
 * The Edith Cavell Home, Hospital, and Village (a retirement village) in Sumner, Christchurch, New Zealand.
 * Cavell Gardens Care Home, Vancouver, Canada; the site was Edith Cavell Hospital from 1955 to 2000

Streets:
 * Cavell Road, Billericay, Essex, England, UK
 * Cavell Road, Norwich, England, UK
 * Cavell Road, Dudley, West Midlands (formerly Worcestershire), England, UK
 * Edith Cavell Close, Openshaw, Manchester, UK
 * Edith Cavell Drive Steeple Bumpstead, England, UK
 * Cavell Avenue, Twin Cities, Minnesota, USA
 * Cavell Street (formerly known as Bedford Street), running next to the London Hospital in Whitechapel, London, where Cavell trained
 * Cavell Street, West Hobart, Tasmania, Australia
 * Cavell Street, Dunedin, New Zealand
 * Cavell Street, Reefton, New Zealand
 * Nurse Cavell Lane, Paparoa, Northland, New Zealand
 * Rue Edith Cavell / Edith Cavellstraat, a street in Uccle/Ukkel, Brussels, Belgium
 * Edith Cavellstraat, a street in Ostend/Oostende, Belgium
 * Rue Edith Cavell, Vitry-sur-Seine, France
 * Avenue Edith-Cavell, in Nice, France
 * Rue Miss Cavell, Arques, France
 * Rue Edith Cavell, Le Havre, France
 * Rua Edith Cavell, a street in Lisbon, Portugal
 * Cavell Drive in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
 * Cavell Drive in Bishops Stortford, Hertfordshire, England, UK
 * Cavell Avenue in Guelph, Ontario, Canada
 * Cavell Avenue in Etobicoke, Ontario, Canada
 * Edith Cavell Boulevard, a road in Port Stanley, Ontario, Canada
 * Cavell Avenue, in Trenton, New Jersey, USA
 * Cavell Street, Westland, Michigan, USA
 * Edith Cavell Street in Hillbrow, Johannesburg, South Africa
 * Edith Cavell Street in Port Louis, Mauritius
 * Cavell Avenue in The Danforth neighbourhood of Toronto, Ontario, Canada
 * Avenue Miss Cavell, St-Maur-Des-Fosses, France
 * Cavell Way, Pendleton, Salford, Greater Manchester, UK
 * Cavell Way, Maidenbower, Crawley, West Sussex, England, UK
 * Cavell Walk, Stevenage, England, UK
 * Edith Cavell Way, Shooters Hill, London, UK
 * Edith Cavell Court, Kingston upon Hull, England, UK
 * Cavell Close, Woodbeck, Nottinghamshire, England, UK (This has been demolished)
 * Edith Cavell Bridge, Queenstown, New Zealand]

Schools:
 * Cavell Primary School, Norwich, England, UK
 * Edith Cavell School, Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada
 * Edith Cavell Elementary School, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
 * Edith Cavell Lower School in Bedford, UK
 * Edith Cavell Elementary School, St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada
 * a middle school in Windsor, Ontario, Canada, which closed in 1987
 * an elementary school in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, Canada, which was later renamed to S.F. Howe
 * Wymondham College in Norfolk, UK, has a boarding block named after her
 * Cavell House, dark blue house at Jersey College for Girls
 * Cavell House, green house at Queen Mary School, Mumbai, India
 * Edith Cavell House, green house at Barnes School, Deolali, India
 * Cavell House, the fourth, blue house of St Aidan's Anglican Girls' School, Brisbane, Australia
 * Cavell House, blue house at Sheringham High School, Norfolk, England, UK
 * Cavell House, Northlands School (founded 1920), Olivos, Argentina
 * Cavell House, green house at Pratt Memorial School, Kolkata, India
 * Cavell House, red house at Cliff Park Junior School, Gorleston.

Other:
 * Cavell Gardens, Inverness, Scotland, UK
 * Cavell Park, a playground in Northeast Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States
 * Mount Edith Cavell, a peak in Alberta, in the Canadian Rockies, named for her in 1931
 * Cavell Corona, a geological feature on Venus
 * Edith Cavell Bridge at Arthur's Point, near Queenstown, New Zealand
 * The Edith Cavell Trust was established by the New South Wales Nurses' Association which provides scholarships to nurses in New South Wales, Australia
 * The Edith Cavell Nursing Scholarship Fund, a philanthropy of the Dallas County Medical Society Alliance Foundation providing scholarships to exceptional nursing students in Dallas, Texas, USA, and the surrounding area
 * Cavell House, a guest house in Clevedon, Somerset, UK, where she spent some of her childhood
 * Miss Edith Cavell, a variety of rose first bred in 1917 is named after her.
 * YWCA Camp Cavell in Lexington, Michigan, USA
 * Edith became a popular name for French and Belgian girls after her execution. The French chanteuse Édith Piaf, born two months after Cavell was executed, was the best known of these
 * Radio Cavell 1350am. Broadcasting to the staff and patients on The Royal Oldham Hospital Charity Radio
 * The Edith Cavell public house, Tombland, Norwich, England, UK
 * The Nurse Cavell Van is the prototype passenger luggage van that transported her remains from Dover to London during her repatriation.
 * a car park in Peterborough's Queensgate shopping centre (until November 2011 when it was renamed as a colour)
 * Edith Cavell Chapter of the Daughters of the British Empire in Houston, Texas, United States

In popular culture
The song "Que Sera" on the album Silent June by O'Hooley &amp; Tidow was inspired by the execution of Edith Cavell. The song "Amy Quartermaine" by Manning from the 2011 album Margaret's Children is also based on the life of Edith Cavell.

The 1939 US film Nurse Edith Cavell starring Anna Neagle and George Sanders. The film is a remake of Herbert Wilcox's 1928 silent film Dawn with Sybil Thorndike. Wilcox was married to Anna Neagle when he remade the story as Nurse Edith Cavell.

In the second episode of the 1980 television series To Serve Them All My Days, Edith Cavell is mentioned in a speech to the school's Officers' Training Corps.