Who was Edith Cavell?
English Nurse executed during first World War.
Date and Place of Birth:
4th December 1865, Swardeston, Norfolk, England.
Family Background:
Daughter of the vicar of Swardeston.
Education:
Boarding schools in London, Clevedon Somerset
and Peterborough.
Chronology/Biography of Edith Cavell:
1895: Became a nurse.
1907: Appointed
first Matron of the Berkendael Institute in Brussels.
1914: Berkendael
Institute became a Red Cross Hospital at the outbreak of the first
World War.
1915: Arrested by
German Troops for assisting allied soldiers to escape from German
occupied Belgium to the Dutch Border between November 1914 and July.
Court Martialled, condemned to death and executed by firing squad
alongside the Belgian Phillipe Baucq who had enlisted guides to
help soldiers escape.
Memorial to Edith Cavell in St Martin's Place, London
(between the National Portrait Gallery and St Martin's in the Fields)
(© Anthony Blagg)
Marriage:
Never married. Became a nurse due to a failed
love affair.
Date and Place of Death:
12th October 1915, Executed at Brussels, Belgium.
Age at Death:
50.
Site of Grave:
Near South East Transept wall, Norwich
Cathedral, Norwich, Norfolk, England.
Places of Interest:
LONDON:
Royal London Hospital.
Museum at St. Augustine with St. Phillip's Church, Newark Street.
Imperial War Museum.
Statue in St Martin's Place near St Martin's in the Fields Church.
