The English Nurse Whose Tragic Heroism and Secret Execution Made
Germany’s Defeat More Certain
The penitence of generations cannot suffice to erase from the world’s
judgment of German character the black stigma of the infamies
perpetrated in Belgium. The implacable, brutal wantonness with which
they were committed makes those crimes unforgettable. Ever conspicuous
among them will be the conscienceless execution of Edith Cavell, the
ministering angel, the merciful nurse murdered by military order,—with
the subsequent deliberate approval of Imperial Germany. A military
technicality was invoked in the attempted justification of the
execution of this brave and devoted woman, who was secretly tried, by a
German court-martial, on the charge of having aided English, French and
German soldiers to escape from Belgium, and hurriedly done to death.
The savagery of the event, which occurred in Brussels, Oct. 12, 1915,
sent a wave of horror and resentment throughout the civilized world
equaled only by the universal indignation aroused by the sinking of the
_Lusitania_.
Miss Cavell was the daughter of an English clergyman, the Rev.
Frederick Cavell, for forty years vicar of Swardeston, Norfolk. In
1896 she entered the London Hospital to qualify as a trained nurse
and later became staff nurse. In 1900 she went to Brussels on the
invitation of Dr. Depage, a distinguished physician who had established
in a suburb of Brussels a training school for Belgian nurses. Miss
Cavell entered into the work so enthusiastically and furthered the
plans of Dr. Depage with such success that the institution, whose
influence was felt throughout Belgium, became the center of a large
nursing organization of scientifically trained nurses. She had won the
confidence of Dr. Depage so entirely that when, on the outbreak of the
war, he was called to military service, she was left to continue the
work in Brussels. All who came in contact with her agree that she was a
woman of fine character and a capable leader, worthy of a high place in
the list of great nurses of whom Florence Nightingale was the first.
When the Germans occupied Brussels in 1914 Miss Cavell was permitted
to remain in the service to which she was so single-heartedly devoted,
and it is a memorable fact, the more honorable to her for the
ingratitude that rewarded her benevolent disinterestedness, that she
and her assistants nursed with equal care and fidelity the wounded
German soldiers and the Belgian victims of war. Her mission was one of
beneficence to the maimed, the sick and the unfortunate, a humanitarian
work that discriminated against none whose needs demanded her sympathy
and aid.