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Bullets, Bottles, and Gardenias
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Historical SummaryBORN 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."
The New York Times
April 15, 1928
The Shooting of Nurse Edith Cavell
[1915]
II. The Execution
[The New York Times,April 15, 1928]
I shrank into my inmost soul at the thought of such a duty [assisting Miss Cavell at her execution] . . . She took
men able to fight into her clinic under the protection of the Red Cross to enable them to reach Holland. She has herself confessed to having helped at least 250 to get over the frontier. That was equivalent to a platoon, which of course would fire on our soldiers . . .
I sat next to Edith Cavell to accompany her to her own burial. She sat quietly at my side, and I did nothing else except repeat a line of Scripture or a verse of an English hymn . . .
She was wonderfully calm. When we reached the place a company of soldiers were drawn up, under the command of an officer. We clergymen led the accused to the front; the soldiers presented arms, and the sentence was read in French and German.
Mr. Baucq [Belgian guide who was sentenced to death along with Miss Cavell] called out, with a clear voice: "Comrades, in the presence of death we are all comrades!" He was not allowed to say more.
The last word was spoken to the accused by us clergymen. I thought it best to make this as short as possible. I took Miss Cavell’s hand and said, in English of course: "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the Fellowship of the Holy Ghost be with thee now and for ever. Amen."
She returned the clasp of my hand, and answered something to this effect; "Tell Mr. Gahan to tell my loved ones later on that my soul, as I hope, is saved, and that I am glad to die for my country."
Then I led her a few steps to the pillar, to which she was loosely tied. A bandage was put over her eyes; the soldier told me they were full of tears.
Then some seconds passed—they seemed endless.
Then the sharp word of command was heard. Two volleys rang out at once. There were ten men, five paces distant. Without a sound, the accused sank to the ground.
A roar of protest greeted the announcement that Edith Cavell had been executed. It was denounced as "the blackest deed of the war." Herr Zimmerman, then German Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, wired an explanation to the American press:
"I see by the British and American press that the shooting of an Englishwoman and the conviction of several other women in Brussels for treason have created a great impression, and that we are being severely
criticized. It is, indeed, hard that a woman has to be executed. . . . No law-book in the world, least of all those dealing with war regulations, makes such a differentiation, and the female sex has but one preference, according to legal usage—namely, that women in a delicate condition may not be executed. . . . No court-martial in the world could have reached any other decision. . . . The sentence has been carried out to frighten those who might presume on their sex to take part in enterprises punishable with death."
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Chicago: Pastor Leseur, "The Shooting of Nurse Edith Cavell—II. The Execution," Bullets, Bottles, and Gardenias in History in the First Person: Eyewitnesses of Great Events: They Saw It Happen, ed. Louis Leo Snyder and Richard B. Morris (Harrisburg, Pa.: Stackpole Co., 1951), Original Sources, accessed May 8, 2025, http://www.originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=7E6E2JAVGT1VTRY.
MLA: Leseur, Pastor. "The Shooting of Nurse Edith Cavell—II. The Execution." Bullets, Bottles, and Gardenias, in History in the First Person: Eyewitnesses of Great Events: They Saw It Happen, edited by Louis Leo Snyder and Richard B. Morris, Harrisburg, Pa., Stackpole Co., 1951, Original Sources. 8 May. 2025. http://www.originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=7E6E2JAVGT1VTRY.
Harvard: Leseur, P, 'The Shooting of Nurse Edith Cavell—II. The Execution' in Bullets, Bottles, and Gardenias. cited in 1951, History in the First Person: Eyewitnesses of Great Events: They Saw It Happen, ed. , Stackpole Co., Harrisburg, Pa.. Original Sources, retrieved 8 May 2025, from http://www.originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=7E6E2JAVGT1VTRY.
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