Edith Cavell

By Abraham Unger, M.D.

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A statue in St. Martin’s Place, just off London’s Trafalgar Square, prominently displays words spoken by Edith Cavell, a British nurse executed during the First World War: “Patriotism is not enough. I must have no hatred or bitterness for anyone.”

Cavell’s humanity and loyalty to Britain led her protect Allied troops trying to avoid German capture early in the war. She considered it a part of her duty to others, a lifelong obligation encouraged by her father, the Vicar of Swardeston. A loving and understanding mother balanced her father’s rigidity in the closely knit family. Edith, born on 4th December, 1865, was the oldest of four children. Despite his limited means, the vicar taught his children to share with those less fortunate. Before their evening meal, they made a habit of carrying a portion of meat to the poorer families of the village. Austerity, sacrifice, and prayer punctuated Edith’s upbringing. Throughout her entire life, she rare found reason to smile.

The vicar taught Edith at home in her early years, because he could not afford a governess or a private school. Nevertheless, she attended a special school at Laurel Court, run by Miss Margaret Gibson, during her middle teens. She became proficient in French and Miss Gibson subsequently recommended her as a governess to the Francois family in Brussels.

By then Edith had grown into a straightforward, humourless woman of medium height and seemingly frail build with an unswerving respect for truth. She wore her brownish hair brushed straight back. With thin lips and a determined mouth, she scorned fun and mischief, but the four Francois children liked her despite her rigid sense of discipline and self-reliance.

She enjoyed her job, but as the years passed and the children grew older, she yearned to serve larger and needier groups of people. In 1895 her father became seriously ill and she hurried back to England to care for him. The experience convinced her to become a nurse and the following year she entered the London Hospital Nurses’ Training School. After completing the course she continued there as a private nurse and in 1901 became night supervisor at St. Pancras Infirmary. Three years later, the prospect higher pay, an end to night duty, and the opportunity to do administrative work and to teach practical nursing enticed her to take the position of Assistant Matron at Shoreditch Infirmary.

She made only one friend during all this time–Evaline Dickenson, with whom she had kept in touch since their training days at the London hospital. The two occasionally spent their holidays together. In 1906 they took several months abroad after Edith, wanting an extended vacation, resigned from her job. Soon after their return, Evaline married and settled in Ireland. Thereafter, she and Edith maintained their relationship only through occasional correspondence. The shy and retiring Nurse Cavell never married, nor was there ever any great love in her life.

At about this time, Antoine Depage, a gruff but brilliant Belgian surgeon, grew increasingly frustrated the religious orders that controlled Belgian nursing. He wanted to shift to a non-denominational system with professionally trained personnel as developed by Florence Nightingale in England. He hoped to thus provide physicians all over Belgium with trained nurses while simultaneously creating a new career for young ladies of good education.

He proposed to start with a nurses’ training school at his Berkendael Institute. To implement it, he sought a matron who had administrative experience, teaching capabilities, an understanding of the Belgian people, and fluency in French. He also wanted someone who had been trained in the manner of Florence Nightingale. Edith qualified on all counts and one of the Francois children, Marguerite, who by this time had become Madame Graux, presented Edith’s name for the job. Soon after, sheaccepted the position.

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