EDITH CAVELL
As the name of Florence Nightingale became world famous at the close of
the Crimean War more than sixty years ago, the name of another English
nurse who suffered martyrdom in the World War will go down into history
with the lustre of glory and self-sacrifice surrounding it. That name
is Edith Cavell.
Edith Cavell was born at Swardeston in Norwich, England, in 1873. Her
father was an English minister of the old school who was rector of a
single parish in Norwich for more than half a century. Edith and her
sister were brought up in strict conformance with church ideas and were
taught the value of leading useful lives and the glory of
self-sacrifice. As was customary at the time when she was a young girl
she received her education on the continent, attending school in the
city of Brussels in Belgium. She then returned to her home and remained
there until, when twenty-one years old and resolved to give her life to
some useful and benevolent occupation, she decided to become a trained
nurse and went to London to study that calling.
She studied at the London Hospital--a place, we are told, where the
hardest and most difficult conditions prevailed, and where the nurses
were worked to the limit of their strength. She also held the position
of a nurse in two other hospitals--the Shoreditch Infirmary in Hoxton,
and the St. Pancras Infirmary; and she gained a reputation both for
hard work and efficiency, while her patients often spoke of her
gentleness and her kindness. Not content with forgetting a patient when
discharged from the hospital, Edith Cavell often followed him to his
home and continued there the lighter nursing that would assure his
convalescence. Her regular duties were severe enough but she used a
large part of her scanty leisure for such purposes as these.
In 1906 Edith Cavell left the English hospitals, where she had made a
reputation for herself, and went back to Brussels, where she took a
position as matron in a Medical and Surgical Home. Nursing in Brussels
had been conducted hitherto by Roman Catholic Sisters of Mercy, and at
first they were inclined to look upon Miss Cavell as an untrained
outsider, but her tact, efficiency and skill soon won the hearts of
these good women, who afforded her every courtesy and entered into
cordial cooperation with her.
Her home succeeded so well that three years after its commencement,
Miss Cavell started also a training school for nurses. She was popular
everywhere in the Belgian capital, and although Protestant, she gained
the praise of the Roman Catholic priests for the generous and unselfish
work that she performed.
When the war broke out Miss Cavell was on a vacation with her mother.
Every year she returned twice to England to visit her family. Her
father had died by this time, but her mother was close to her heart and
she saw her as often as she could.
"I may be looked on as an old maid," she is reported as saying, "but
with my work and my mother I am a very happy one, and desire nothing
more as long as I have these two."
When war was declared Miss Cavell lost no time in hurrying back to
Brussels, believing that her duty called her there. She wrote a letter
commenting on the German army when it swept through Belgium--and in it
she voiced her pity for the tired, footsore German soldiers,--who were
later to slay her. Brussels became a part of the German Empire and a
tyrannical governor came there to establish his headquarters, issuing
proclamations threatening the Belgians with death for minor offenses,
and filling Brussels with spies and intrigue. Miss Cavell desired to
continue her hospital work and went to the Governor, Von Bissing, to
get permission to do so. He granted it, for the quiet English nurse
made an impression upon him. We are told that the arrogant German
formed a high opinion of her--so much so that he secretly determined to
keep her under the strictest supervision!
From that time on spies dogged her tracks. She cared for the wounded
German soldiers and nursed a number of German officers, as well as the
Belgians who were in her care, but this made no difference to the
authorities. They were determined to detect her in some crime and
punish her. It was not fitting, they thought, that an enemy should be
engaged in works of mercy, even though they themselves might benefit
thereby. And soon spies began to come to the Governor with tales and
fabrications of the crimes that she had been committing in their eyes.
They bore witness that she had given an overcoat to a Frenchman who was
cold and hungry--and the Frenchman later escaped over the Dutch
frontier. Once she gave a glass of water to a Belgian soldier. She had
given money to poor people, perhaps to soldiers. But the main reason
that the Germans hated her was because she was held in great affection
by the people of Brussels.
On the night of August fifth, 1915, we are told, Miss Cavell was tying
up the wounds of a wounded German soldier, when a group of armed men
entered the room and their leader told her roughly that she was under
arrest. A blow was the only response when she tried to expostulate. She
was taken to prison and placed in solitary confinement. Her arrest was
shrouded with the most careful secrecy, for the Germans did not want to
have the representatives of neutral governments, such as the United
States, know of the affair or of what they proposed to do.
But word of her plight did reach England through a traveler, and at
once the British Government requested the American Ambassador, Dr.
Page, to get what information he could from Brand Whitlock, the
American Minister in Belgium. He went at once to the German
authorities, but they evaded his questions and waited ten days before
giving him a reply. Then the Germans sent him a statement declaring
that Edith Cavell herself had admitted giving money to English and
Belgian soldiers and furnishing them with guides to help them to the
Dutch frontier, whence they might escape into Holland and return to
England.
This was the German statement. If what they said were true, there was
still no cause for killing the unfortunate woman in their power, for
she was not accused at any time of having been a spy. But they had
planned to try her for her life, and Mr. Whitlock soon guessed this, in
spite of the fact that the Germans kept their preparations from him so
far as possible.
An American lawyer, Mr. de Leval, was requested by Mr. Whitlock to take
Miss Cavell's case and do whatever was possible in her behalf. He was
not allowed to see the prisoner--and was not even allowed to look at
the documents in the case until the trial began. Another lawyer, who
was a Belgian, suddenly appeared and told the Americans that there was
not the least cause for them to worry as Miss Cavell was sure to
receive only just treatment. He also promised to let them know when the
trial was to take place, and that he would keep them informed of all
the developments in the case. All these promises were broken. It is
true that he sent a note a few days before the trial telling Mr.
Whitlock that the case was about to come to court, but that is all that
he told them. He never informed them that the death sentence had been
imposed. He never came to see them afterward. And when they sought him
for an explanation and for assistance, he had disappeared.
Miss Cavell was kept in solitary confinement for two months and then
was tried with a number of other persons who were accused of crimes
against the German Government. It was only from a private source that
Mr. de Leval learned that the trial was under way, and that the death
sentence had been given. Miss Cavell herself, we are told, was calm,
dignified and brave at the trial and faced her accusers heroically. She
was dressed in her nurse's uniform and wore the badge of the Red Cross.
When Mr. Whitlock learned that she had been tried and sentenced to
death he did everything possible to secure her pardon, or at least a
moderation of the punishment. He wrote to Baron Von der Lancken,
pointing out in a clear and decisive manner that Miss Cavell had served
the Germans by caring for their wounded, and that the death sentence
had never before been inflicted for the crime of which she was accused.
He also wrote a note to the Baron which is as follows:
"My dear Baron:
"I am too ill to present my request to you in person, but I appeal
to your generosity of heart to support it and save this unfortunate
woman from death. Have pity on her.
"BRAND WHITLOCK."
All through the day the American Legation sent message after message to
the German authorities asking for information. They received none. At
6:20 in the evening they were told by a subordinate that the sentence
had not been given--only to learn later that it had indeed been
declared, and that Miss Cavell would face a firing squad at two o'clock
the following morning. Mr. Whitlock then urged Baron Von der Lancken to
appeal to Gen. Von Bissing to mitigate the sentence, and at eleven in
the evening he was told that Von Bissing refused to do anything to save
Miss Cavell's life.
At the same time that the Governor denied this appeal, Edith Cavell was
allowed to see a British chaplain. She told him that she was not in the
least afraid of death and willingly gave her life for her country. Her
words resembled those of Florence Nightingale that have been quoted
elsewhere in this book. Death, she said, was well known to her, and she
had seen it so often that it was not strange or fearful to her.
Early in the morning with her eyes bandaged Miss Cavell was led out to
face the rifles of the Huns. She wore an English flag over her bosom.
Only Germans were witnesses of the execution, but the German chaplain
who attended said that she died like a heroine.
When her death became known, the entire civilized world was shocked and
horrified. In England this murder did more to stimulate recruiting than
anything else up to that time. All day long lines of men waited to sign
the papers of enlistment, and in Miss Cavell's home town every eligible
man was sworn into the army.
A bitter denunciation of the German act was made by Sir Edward Grey.
The Germans themselves had only a poor excuse for what they had done.
In brief the case against the German authorities is as follows: they
had not previously inflicted the death penalty for the offense of which
Miss Cavell was accused; they had kept her in solitary confinement and
prevented her from consulting an advocate up to the time of her trial;
she was tried with great haste and with great secrecy, and after the
trial the sentence was carried out far more speedily than usual.
Moreover they had deceived Mr. Whitlock and the other members of the
American Legation, and had done so deliberately. After the execution
they refused to return the body.
But the name of Edith Cavell has become one of the world's great names
and her fame grows brighter as time passes. In the hospital where she
was in training for her high calling a fitting memorial to her is being
prepared--it is the Edith Cavell Home to be a permanent part of the
London Hospital where she served her difficult apprenticeship. But her
chief memorial is in the hearts and minds of the British nation.