| | edith cavell Edith Cavell was born the daughter of the rector of Swardeston, Norfolk, in 1865. After being educated at a variety of schools, she trained as a nurse at the London Hospital. Before the First World War she went to Belgium, where she became the first matron of the Berkendael Medical Institute in Brussels.
After the German Army invaded Belgium in 1914, Berkendael became a Red Cross Hospital, with German soldiers receiving the same attention as Belgians. Many of the captured Allied soldiers who were treated at Berkendael managed to escape, with Edith Cavell's active assistance, to neutral Holland. She was arrested by the local German authorities and charged with having personally aided in the escape of some 200 such soldiers.
Edith Cavell was kept in solitary confinement for ten weeks. She was told that her companions had confessed and, perhaps naively, she signed a confession, which was to become the basis for her trial. She was tried by court-martial, and along with her Belgian accomplice, Philippe Baucq, was found guilty and sentenced to death. Edith Cavell's execution by firing squad on 12th October 1915 received worldwide press coverage.
Talking to the English Pastor the night before her execution she said "I am thankful to have had these ten weeks of quiet to get ready. Now I have had them and have been kindly treated here. 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".
A longer biography and more information on Nurse Edith Cavell can be found at http://www.edithcavell.org.uk/
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