Edith Cavell — Martyr-Heroine
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.