Who was Edith Cavell

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Q.� Why was she shot

A.� For helping British soldiers to escape. I'd better tell you her full story.

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Q.� Please do.

A.� Edith was born in 1865, daughter�of the Rev Frederick Cavell, Vicar of Swardeston, Norfolk�-�the eldest of four. As a young woman she took jobs as a governess and, while visiting Austria and Bavaria, she became deeply impressed by a free hospital run by a Dr Wolfenberg. This started a growing interest in nursing.

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Q.� So she became a nurse

A.� Not straight away. She showed a flair for French and in 1890 took a post as governess in Brussels which lasted five years. Her summer breaks were spent in Swardeston, where she formed a romantic attachment with her second cousin Eddie.

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Q.� Did it come to anything

A.� No. Eddie apparently believed he had an inherited nervous complaint which meant he ought not to marry. They appear to have been in love and Edith never forgot him - on the day of her execution she wrote on the flyleaf of her copy of The Imitation of Christ, 'With love to ED Cavell' . After her spell in Belgium, Edith went on to train as a nurse at the London Hospital.

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Q.� With distinction

A.� Yes. In summer 1897 an epidemic of typhoid fever broke out in Maidstone, Kent. Six of the trainee nurses were seconded to help, including Edith. Of 1,700 who contracted the disease, only 132 died. Edith received the Maidstone Medal for her work here - the only medal she was ever to receive from her country. Later she went on to be a night superintendent at a Poor Law institution in

St Pancras, and assistant matron at Shoreditch in 1903.

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Q.� And she returned to Belgium

A.� Yes, in 1907. There she worked at a clinic for Dr Antoine Depage, who wanted to make Belgian nursing much more professional - and take it out of the hands of caring but untrained nuns. Edith -�put in charge of the training school -�rose to the occasion and, by 1912, was providing nurses for three hospitals, 24 communal schools and 13 kindergartens. In 1914, while she was visiting her mother in Norfolk, the Germans invaded Belgium. She immediately went back.

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Q.� To the clinic

A.� Yes. It became a Red Cross hospital - German soldiers receiving the same attention as Belgian. In the autumn of 1914 two stranded British soldiers found their way to Nurse Cavell's training school and were sheltered for two weeks. Others followed, all of them spirited away to neutral territory in Holland. Quickly an 'underground' chain was established. Two members of the escape team were arrested on 31 July 1915. Cavell was interned five days later.

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Q.� She confessed

A.� Yes - but freely. She would never tell a lie and believed that if she told the truth she could trust her captors. She could not. She was sentenced to die on 12 October.

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Q.� Did nobody protest

A.� Strong representations were made by the neutral American and Spanish embassies, but the German military authorities were determined to carry out the execution immediately. She told a chaplain the night before she died: 'I expected my sentence and I believe it was just. Standing as I do in view of God and Eternity, I realise that patriotism is not enough; I must have no hatred or bitterness towards anyone.' The next day she was shot at the rifle range at Tir. One of the firing squad, a Private Rimmel, is said to have thrown down his rifle when ordered to fire. He was immediately shot by a German officer for refusing to obey orders.

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Q.� So where was she buried

A.� Hurriedly, at the rifle range. A plain wooden cross was put over her grave (part of this memorial can now be seen preserved at Swardeston Church). After the war, she was reburied in Norfolk Cathedral -�after a grand ceremony� at Westminster Abbey on 15 May 1919. A statue of her was put up in St Martin's Place, just off Trafalgar Square. It is engraved with the words: 'Patriotism is not enough.'� Her death swayed neutral opinion against Germany and eventually helped bring the USA into the war. Recruitment doubled in the weeks after her execution.

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by Steve Cunningham