Edith Louise Cavell (1865-1915)

Edith Cavell Edith Louise Cavell was born in Swardeston near Norwich in December 1865. She excelled at foreign languages at school and became a governess first in England and later with a family in Brussels. In 1895, she returned to England to nurse her father, an experience that convinced her she should train as a nurse. She trained in fever nursing at Fountains in Tooting, South London, and in 1896 began her general nurse training at the London Hospital, Whitechapel.

Cavell then spent two years as a Staff Nurse on Mellish Ward and on the London’s private nursing staff, during which time she nursed cholera patients in Kent. In 1901, she left to become Night Superintendent at St Pancras Infirmary and in 1903 she became assistant matron of Shoreditch Infirmary. After a summer abroad she then worked as the head of the Queen’s District Nurses in Manchester.

In 1907, she returned to Brussels as matron of a private nursing institution with a view to starting Belgium’s first nurse training school. In doing so she set the professional standard for Belgian nurses.

With the outbreak of war in 1914, she was faced with casualties of all nationalities. Together with friends she actively participated in organising help for British and Allied soldiers to escape occupied Belgium. They were discovered by the German forces and she was arrested on 7 August 1915.

Cavell was found guilty by a military tribunal, and was sentenced to death along with four other members of the escape network. She was shot on the 12 October 1915. At the end of the war she was interred in the cathedral grounds in Norwich. There are several memorials around the world, in Brussels and in Britain. One of these by Sir George Frampton was unveiled by Queen Alexandra in 1920 and shows her in the London Hospital outdoor uniform and stands near Trafalgar Square. Each anniversary of her death, two sisters from the London Hospital leave a wreath at the memorial.

Costa Rica issued a stamp to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the founding of the Costa Rican Red Cross Society, and honours two famous British nurses who had a worldwide influence.