Edith Cavell became one of the famous names
in the long history of the Royal London Hospital, Whitechapel when she was shot dead by a
German firing squad just after dawn on October 12th 1915.
She had turned to nursing at the age of 30, first becoming a nurse probationer at the
London Hospital. She began a six week training course at Tredegar House in Bow which at
the time was the hospital's preliminary training school. She quickly developed a
'self-sufficient manner' which was apt to predjudice people against her. But it was this
same characteristic that was to impress those who met the determined nurse and made her
appear aloof and difficult to befreind.
She spent the next two years working in the wards of the London Hospital and then did a
stint as a private nurse around the country and returned to Whitechapel in 1899. After a
further seven years of nursing she took up the position of head of nursing at the Rue de
la Culture in Brussels, a country where she had previously spent time as a governess. She
also became matron of St Giles Hospital and was closely involved with plans for a new
nursing school (later to become the institut Medical Edith Cavell) when World War One
broke out in 1914.
Edith Cavell was able to stay on in Belgium and inevitably she came in contact with the
many wounded British and allied soldiers. This led her to take part in organising escapes
and the use of the school to smuggle allied prisoners to safety. Eventually this was
discovered by the Germans and she was arrested on August 4th, 1915. She was tried on
October 6th before a military tribunal on charges of war treason and condemmed to die -
the sentence to be carried out immediately befor any International outcry could prevent
it.
Edith Cavell was buried near her execution in Brussels and after the war her remains were
reburied in Norwich, the town where she was born. She was later commemorated by Cavell
Street, just behind the London Hospital and is revered to this day in Belgium as one of
the founders of the nursing establishment. |
