Edith Cavell (1865-1915) 12th October

Ironically, Edith Cavell is celebrated now chiefly for her last words, "I realize that patriotism is not enough. I must have no hatred or bitterness towards anyone." Yet she achieved fame originally in WWI because her fate was used unscrupulously by the allies to whip up hatred of the Germans.

As a young woman, Cavell inherited a modest income, enabling her to travel in Europe before training as a nurse at the London Hospital in 1895. After sundry nursing posts, she became matron of a clinic in Brussels, which was converted in 1914 into a Red Cross Hospital for both German and allied soldiers. Cavell played a part in helping allied soldiers to hide and escape, and was inevitably caught by the Germans and brought for trial with 35 others before a military court.

There was insufficient evidence to convict Cavell on a capital charge, apart from her own confession that she had actually succeeded in helping British soldiers to escape. She was undoubtedly a brave woman who believed herself, perhaps mistakenly, to be morally in the right, even though legally in the wrong, and could not bring herself to lie about her activity. In spite of appeals by the US minister in Brussels, she was shot by the Germans in October 1915.

The proceedings were quite regular under the rather harsh German code, but the British, who did not execute women (as opposed to Irishmen) for similar wartime offences, were horrified. 'Nurse Cavell,' who did not believe patriotism was enough, became a national heroine, with a memorial by Sir George Frampton in St Martin's Lane.

Charles Plouviez