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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