_Experience of American Diplomat in Effort to Save Life of English
Nurse_
_Told by Hugh Gibson, Secretary of American Legation at Brussels_
This is the official story of the events on the midnight just
before the execution of Edith Cavell, the English nurse, who became
the first woman martyr of the Great War. Hugh Gibson here relates
how, with the Spanish Minister and a Belgian counsellor, he went
to the house of the German Governor at Brussels late at night and
pleaded with Baron von der Lancken and the German officers for a
stay of execution. The American Minister, Brand Whitlock, too ill
to make the journey himself, waited at the American Embassy for the
results of the mission. The story is told in the official report to
Minister Whitlock, which was forwarded to the British Government.
The narrative given herewith is from Mr. Gibson's statement in the
_World's Work_, with introductory reports from other sources.
[14] I--STORY OF THE EXECUTION OF EDITH CAVELL
Edith Cavell was an English nurse, daughter of the late Rev. Frederick
Cavell, former Vicar of Swardeston, Norfolk. The charge against her was
aiding Belgians to escape to England. It is stated she hid them in her
house and provided them with money and addresses in England and helped
to smuggle them across the frontier.
Miss Cavell was confined in prison ten weeks. Her trial before the
military court of Brussels lasted two days. M. De Leval, Belgian
Counsellor for the American Legation, tells this story:
"Herr Kirschon assured me repeatedly that the Military Court
always was perfectly fair and that he would keep me informed of all
developments in the case, but he failed to give me any information and
after the trial I learned from other sources the following:
"Miss Cavell was prosecuted for having helped English and French
soldiers, as well as Belgian young men, to cross the frontier and go
to England. She admitted by signing a statement before the day of the
trial and by public acknowledgment in court that she was guilty of
the charges, not only that she had helped these soldiers to cross the
frontier, but also that some of them had thanked her in writing when
arriving in England.
"This last admission made her case more serious, because if it had only
been proved she had helped soldiers to traverse the Dutch frontier and
no proof was produced that those soldiers had reached a country at war
with Germany, she could have only been sentenced for an attempt to
commit the crime, and not for the crime being duly accomplished.
"Miss Cavell, in her oral statement before the court, disclosed almost
all the facts of the prosecution. She spoke without trembling and
showed a clear mind, and often added some greater precision to her
previous depositions.
"When she was asked why she helped these soldiers to go to England she
replied that she thought if she had not done so they would have been
shot by the Germans. Therefore she thought she only did her duty to her
country in saving their lives.
"The military prosecutor said the argument might be good for English
soldiers, but that it did not apply to Belgian young men, who would
have been perfectly free to remain in the country without danger to
their lives. The German military court found her guilty and sentenced
her to death by shooting."
The execution took place at 2 o'clock in the morning (October 12, 1915)
immediately after the American and Spanish diplomats left the house of
the German Governor, who refused their appeals.
The execution ground was a garden or yard in Brussels surrounded by
a wall. A German firing party of six men and an officer was drawn up
in the garden and awaited its victim. She was led in by soldiers from
a house near-by, blindfolded with a black scarf. Up to this minute
the woman, though deadly white, had stepped out bravely to meet her
fate, but before the rifle party her strength at last gave out and she
tottered and fell to the ground thirty yards or more from the spot
where she was to have been shot.
The officer in charge of the execution walked to her. She lay prone on
the ground, motionless. The officer then drew a large service revolver
from his belt, took steady aim from his knee and shot the woman through
the head as she lay on the floor (this version is denied by the German
authorities). The firing party looked on. The officer quietly returned
his revolver to its case and ordered the soldiers to carry the body
to the house, where charge was taken of it by a Belgian woman, acting
under the instructions of the Spanish Minister, who had undertaken the
responsibility for the body pending arrangements for the burial.
* * * * *
M. De Leval, a Belgian counsellor, makes this statement of Edith
Cavell's last message:
"This morning Mr. Gahan, an English clergyman, told me that he had
seen Miss Cavell in her cell yesterday night at 10 o'clock and that
he had given her the Holy Communion and had found her admirably
strong and calm. I asked Mr. Gahan whether she had made any remarks
about anything concerning the legal side of her case, and whether
the confession she made before trial and in court was in his opinion
perfectly free and sincere. Mr. Gahan said she told him she was
perfectly well and knew what she had done; that, according to the law,
of course she was guilty, and admitted her guilt, but that she was
happy to die for her country."[14]