Historical Summary

BORN in Norfolk, England, Edith Louisa Cavell went in 1907 to Brussels as first matron of a leading medical institute. Upon the outbreak of war seven years later, the institution was turned into a Red Cross hospital. Between the fall of 1914 and the following summer, Prince Reginald de Croy received many wounded and derelict French, Belgian, and British soldiers into his chateau, from where they were sent on to Brussels. Here Edith Cavell and others in their turn provided them with shelter and the means for reaching the Dutch border, generally with the help of guides organized by Philippe Baucq.

Infuriated by the success of the underground railway, the German authorities in Brussels arrested Miss Cavell, who confessed that she had speeded some two hundred Allied soldiers on their way to safety. At a court-martial held that October in Brussels, the nurse refused to say anything in her defense. The sentence was "Todesstrafe"—death.

Immediately after the trial, Dr. G. Hostelet, a Belgian who had been tried with her, saw Miss Cavell leaning against a wall, cold and impassive. "I went to her and said a few words of hope. ’Mademoiselle, make an appeal for mercy.’ ’It is useless,’ she answered placidly, ’I am English and they want my life.’"

The American First Secretary of his legation in Brussels, Hugh Gibson, made frantic attempts to obtain a reprieve for the English nurse. In his journal Gibson tells how he attempted to save "the tiny thing that looked as though she could be blown away with a breath." He called on Baron von der Lancken of the German Political Department, only to find that the official and members of his staff had gone out to spend the evening "at one of the disreputable theatres that have sprung up here for the entertainment of the Germans." He waited until 10:30, when the baron, followed by Count Harrach and Baron yon Falkenhausen, returned. Gibson literally begged for clemency, reminding Lancken that "this murder would stir all civilized countries with horror and disgust." Count Harrach broke in at this point with the frank comment that he would rather "see Miss Cavell shot than any harm come to the humblest German soldier," and his only great regret was that they did not have "three or four old Englishwomen to shoot."

In the following eyewitness reports, note that the German chaplain and the German doctor, both of whom were present at the execution, expressed appreciation of the bravery of Edith Cavell but at the same time considered the punishment logical and just. The accounts are: (1) a description of the last visit of Mr. H. Stirling T. Gahan, British chaplain at Brussels, to Miss Cavell; (2) a story of the execution scene by Pastor Leseur, German Evangelical chaplain at Brussels, as given in an open letter to a pastor in French Switzerland; and (3) a report on the execution by Dr. Gottfried Benn, chief surgeon of the German Army in the Brussels area.

Key Quote

"I realize that patriotism is not enough."