Edith opened the school on 1st October, 1907. Her discipline was strict but scrupulously fair. She streesed duty and service to others, as well as ethical conduct, cleanliness, dedication to work, and punctuality.

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As a teacher, she was aloof, detached, and professionally correct at all times. She guarded her independence vehemently and thus had frequent clashes with the temperamental Doctor Depage. Neither of them yielded and it remained for the tactful and diplomatic doctor’s wife, Marie, to smooth over the difficult moments between the sedate Matron and the emotional surgeon. In the process, Edith came to know and deeply respect Marie Depage.

Through her talents as both a teacher and a capable administrator, she soon improved the level of Belgian nursing and began attracting more recruits. By 1909 she had 23 probationers and by 1914, at the onset of First World War, her school had become a source of nursing personnel for hospitals, communal schools, and private nursing homes.

Then, on a fateful September day in 1914, Herman Capiau, a young engineer in a village near Mons, arrived at Miss Cavell’s office, telling of a battle that had been fought at Mons in south-west Belgium. He explained that a number of Allied soldiers had been separated from their units in the confusion of the struggle, and sympathetic nuns and villagers had hidden them. As the Germans advanced, they were shooting not only any stragglers they found, but also the civilians who harboured them.

Capiau asked Cavell to take in two English soldiers who had accompanied him, disguised as Belgian labourers. One, Colonel Bodger, had been wounded in the leg and needed medical attention badly. The other, Sergeant Meachin, was still in relatively good health. Capiau said that it had become too dangerous to hide them in the countryside any longer and he had, therefore, brought them to Brussels, where had referred him to Miss Cavell.

Edith trusted Madame Depage implicitly, and the sight of the two English soldiers, distressed and facing execution if caught, put an end to any hesitation she felt. She admitted the two Englishmen and assigned them to empty beds, where the received food and immediate medical attention. When they had sufficiently recovered, Edith provided them with expert guides who escorted them to Holland. The entire venture was successful enough to be the forerunner of a much greater involvement for Edith.

When Capiau returned to his native Wasmes and reported Edith’s accommodation of the two British soldiers to Prince Reginald de Croy, the aristocrat visited her and convinced her to join his group which included, among others, Phillipe Baucq, a Brussels architect. The group combed the fields around Mons, as well as northern France just across the border, for fugitive troops, whom they then hid, provided with food, money, and civilian clothes, and relocated to avoid the Germans and certain death.

As part of that apparatus, Edith provided a place of refuge in the nursing home and cared for the men until they could continue their escape. She saw to it that each man had 25 francs for his journey. If he lacked identification papers, she supplied them. If he needed guides, she found them, and she often led the soldiers through the streets of Brussels herself to the meeting place with those guides. On such occasions she chose a crowded street or a tramway terminus so as to attract the least possible attention.

Despite her administrative position at the nursing home, Edith did most of the chores herself. Only a few of the staff knew of her work, and she did not want to incriminate the nurses in her charge. Nor did she want them to know too much in case the Germans picked them up and questioned them.

The organization functioned smoothly, helping British, French, and Belgian soldiers to escape from behind the German lines and eventually rejoin their units. They also helped young Belgians and Frenchmen of military age to escape and enlist in the Allied fighting forces. At one time, Edith housed as many as 35 refugees in her nursing home. When space ran short, she would hide soldiers in a private home in Brussels.

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