Edith Cavell

“ A Portrait Study by John T. Tussaud.
Nurse Cavell, Jack Cornwell, and Captain Fryatt will always be remembered with esteem by the present generation, and the great story of their heroic deeds ensures for them a permanent home at Baker Street, where they will be viewed with patriotic pride by posterity. The portrait of Edith Cavell, the martyr-nurse, was modelled immediately after that heroic woman was brutally shot by the Germans at Brussels at two o’clock in the morning of Tuesday, the 12th of October, 1915. ”

“ In the House of Lords the Earl of Desart asked the Government if they could give any information with regard to the execution of Miss Edith Cavell by the German authorities in Belgium. Her offence, he said, of assisting her own countrymen and the countrymen of our Allies to escape was one which a belligerent was entitled to protect itself against, and a sentence of execution might even be passed, but such sentence ought never to have been carried out by any country. ”

“ Later in the day came the final scenes in the obsequies of Edith Cavell at Norwich Cathedral, where the ashes of the world-famous victim of an unchivalrous foe had come home for sepulture in an atmosphere of intimate and almost personal concern. The citizens turned out in tens of thousands. Every department of the civic life of the county was represented, but again the nurses were in the forefront of the picture. ”

“ Out of the shadows of the centuries into the sunlit street the flower-decked coffin was borne by the eight Guardsmen bearers to be replaced on the gun-carriage, which passed through the crowded City to Liverpool Street Station, en route for Norwich, and every yard of the way there was [Pg 175] evidence that the spirit of Edith Cavell was living in the throngs who mourned her loss, even as they honoured her sacrifice. ”

“ British justice has a name [Pg 146] throughout the world. Henceforth, so will German justice, but the name will be of other significance.'
The Nursing Mirror.
'The heroic and tragic death of Miss Edith Cavell has placed the martyr's crown on the head of this most courageous and patriotic woman, and has consecrated afresh the whole of the nursing profession for her sake in the eyes of the world. Never has the heart of the nation been more deeply stirred than by this crowning deed of infamy; never have the vials of its righteous indignation been poured forth in such a torrent of just anger. ”

“ The circumstances of Edith Cavell’s death became known in England on Trafalgar Day. The news reached the public through the newspapers the following morning. No one who was in London that day will ever forget the sense of horror that ran through the land. From early morning a dense crowd of people thronged round the only tangible symbol of her martyrdom, a wreath of laurels placed among those of the sailors who died for England. ”

“ In due course, as we most fully believe, the blood of all those who have perished to slake the brutal German thirst for dominion will be required at the hands of the guilty. On the other hand, the name of Edith Cavell is henceforth enshrined among the patriots and martyrs who have died nobly for the honour of the Empire. May her relatives and friends find comfort in that thought!'
The Daily Mail. ”

“ Zimmermann had no occasion on the accepted theory of Prussian militarism to justify the secret trial and midnight execution of Edith Cavell. Indeed, he freely intimates that his Government will not spare women, no matter how high and noble the motive may have been which inspires any infraction of military law, and to this sweeping statement he makes but one exception, namely, that women "in a delicate condition may not be executed." But why the exception? If it be permitted to destroy one life for the welfare of the military administration of Belgium, why stop at two? ”

“ While thousands of ravishers and spoilers go free, one woman who had spent her life in ministries to such as were sick and afflicted is handed over to the executioner. Truly there has been no such trial since Barabbas was released and Christ led forth to the hill of Calvary.'
Mr. G. K. Chesterton contributed a scathing indictment to the Illustrated London News:
'There is not much that can be said, or said easily, about the highest aspects of the murder of Edith Cavell. ”

“ Some day, when the war is over, another grave may be dug in this quiet spot. If [Pg 3] the poor mutilated frame of Edith Cavell is ever permitted to be brought back home, her countrymen will come here to look upon the place where she lies. In this October of 1915 she sleeps in a land ravaged by war, and those who killed her will not stoop even to the tardy pity of giving back her body.
But in those early seventies the village churchyard was not a place of sadness to the Rectory children. ”

“ The Journal des Débats.
'Miss Cavell died like a heroine, like a true worthy daughter of England, the victim of those who would like to have killed her country, and who revenged themselves on a woman. The murder of Miss Cavell deserves to be avenged, and it will be, and in a manner more terrible than the Germans dream of. The soul of England and the soul of France are to-day united over the body of poor but glorious Miss Cavell in a most sacred oath.'
Intransigeant. ”

“ Her executioners had illustrated this, for the ruthless killing of Edith Cavell for military purposes was actuated by that perverted spirit of patriotism which [Pg 69] believes that any wrong is sanctified if it serves the State.
No one suggests that General von Bissing had any personal feeling against Miss Cavell. Indeed his conduct would be the more tolerable if it had been actuated by the spirit of anger. He killed her in cold blood and to strengthen the German occupation in Belgium. ”

“ Even in a British court of justice perfectly innocent people are overawed by their surroundings, causing them to be self-conscious, nervous, and distracted at a time when cool collectedness should be the first line of their defence. But Miss Cavell knew that she was arraigned before unjust judges, who lacked the virtues of charity, sincerity, humanity, and probity, without which the exercise of judgement is a mockery and a sham. ”

“ But we cannot follow the incidents of the last day of Edith Cavell’s life without becoming aware that a design had been conceived in some brain to hurry on the last penalty before there was time for a reprieve.
Mr. de Leval had heard privately on the evening before (Sunday, October 10th) that the trial was over, and that the death sentence had been demanded. The trial had ended on Friday, but Mr. Kirschen, the lawyer, did not report to Mr. de Leval as he had promised. Neither on Saturday nor [Pg 41] Sunday could Mr. Kirschen be found, and he disappears altogether from view after the trial. ”

“ The lot of a school-girl is not too happy at the best among new companions. When [Pg 10] their language and ways are those of a foreign country they can become a source of torture to a sensitive child. Some of these school-girl irritations Edith Cavell had to bear; yet such early annoyances evidently left little mark on her, for she returned many years later to Brussels of her own free will, and conquered the affections of the Belgians a second time. ”

“ Minister Whitlock only heard this on October 11th, and he at once addressed a letter to Baron von der Lancken in which, after stating this fact, he appealed "to the sentiment of generosity and humanity in the Governor General in favor of Miss Cavell," with a view to commutation of the death sentence, and at the same time addressed a similar letter to Baron von Bissing, the Military Governor of Belgium, who did not deign to give to the American Government even the cold courtesy of a reply. ”

“ In England when the meanest felon is arrested he is warned by the officer who reads the charge to him, that he need not make any statement unless he wishes, and that anything he says may be used in evidence against him. In Brussels, under German rule, Edith Cavell’s judges deliberately set themselves to extort admissions by which to condemn her. ”

“ Military necessity—ever the tyrant's plea—demanded a victim further to terrorize the subjugated people. They chose Miss Cavell. [Pg 50]
Notwithstanding the request of the American Legation in its letter of October 5th that it be advised not only as to the charges, but also as to the sentence imposed upon Miss Cavell, and the express promise of M. Kirschen to inform it of all developments, it was kept in ignorance of the fact that sentence of death had been passed upon her. ”

“ It is notably the face of an upright man. Surely capable of sternness, he would be just to the point of inexorableness unless his face belies him. A sense of duty is implicit in every line; and we have the best of reasons for knowing that he transmitted this part of his character to his daughter Edith.
“The clever Miss Cavell” she was called in later years when she worked at a London hospital; but a more dominant characteristic was a rigid insistence upon what she deemed to be right. This was the constant theme of the father’s sermons to his village flock. ”

“ The Belgian people lived happily in their corner of the earth, confident in their dream of independence. They saw this dream dispelled, they saw their country ruined and devastated, its ancient hospitable soil has been sown with thousands of tombs where our own sleep; the war has made tears flow which no hand can dry. No, the murdered soul of Belgium will never forget. ”

“ It should, however, be added, in fairness to him, that the anonymous "outsider," from whom the American Legation got its only information as to the developments of the trial, stated that Kirschen "made a very good plea for Miss Cavell, using all arguments that could be brought in her favor before the court." ”

“ I affirm with confidence that under this law Miss Cavell was innocent, and that the true meaning of the law was perverted in order to inflict the death sentence upon her.
I admit that a general and strained construction of the language above quoted might be [Pg 44] applicable to a defendant who gave refuge to hostile soldiers in Brussels and thus enabled them to escape across the frontier into Holland and thence into a belligerent country, but every penal law must receive a construction that is favorable to the defendant and agreeable to the dictates of humanity. ”

“ One can to some extent understand the Berserker fury which caused von Bissing to say in effect to this gentle-faced English nurse, "You are in our way. You menace our security. You must die, as countless thousands have already died, to secure the results of our seizure of Belgium"; but can we understand or in any way palliate the attempt to hide the stains of blood on that prison floor of Brussels with a cobweb of self-evident falsehoods? ”

“ We have already seen that even if Miss Cavell's counsel, M. Kirschen, endeavored in good faith to make an adequate defense in her behalf, it was impossible for him to see her in advance of the trial, and M. Kirschen admitted this when he explained to the legal counsel of the American Embassy that
"lawyers defending prisoners before a German Military Court were not allowed to see their clients before trial and were not permitted to see any document of the prosecution." ”

“ Hundreds of women and young girls have been outraged by German officers and men; many have been shot, and others burnt alive. But what distinguishes the case of Miss Cavell—not forgetting the singular nobility of her character—from these obscurer tragedies is the fact that, owing to the presence of the vigilant and high-minded Minister of a neutral State, the veil has been lifted upon the whole proceedings, from their inception to their mournful conclusion in the courtyard of the prison of St. ”

“ Although their own proposals for the defence of Miss Cavell were rejected, they do not deny that her trial was, in a sense, fair, and that the issue was in accordance with the evidence and the provisions of the German military code. The correspondence of Mr. Brand Whitlock with Mr. Page, and the documents he forwards, gain the greater cogency from their frank avowal of that fact. Murder by process of law is, of course, no rare thing. ”

“ This would especially be the case of Miss Cavell, because the trial would be rather long, as she was prosecuted with 34 other prisoners."
This explanation of M. Kirschen is amazing to any lawyer who is familiar with the defense of men who are charged with a crime. Here [Pg 38] was a case of life and death and the counsel for the defense intimates that he can adequately defend the prisoner at the bar without being previously advised as to the nature of the charges or obtaining an opportunity to confer with his client before the testimony begins. ”

“ Miss Cavell is the head of the Brussels Surgical Institute. She has spent her life in alleviating the sufferings of others, and her school has turned out many nurses who have watched at the bedside of the sick all the world over, in Germany as in Belgium. At the beginning of the war Miss Cavell bestowed her care as freely on the German soldiers as on others. Even in default of all other reasons, her career as a servant of humanity is such as to inspire the greatest sympathy and to call for pardon. ”

“ In England, France, and the United States the idea of justice is that an individual has certain fundamental and inalienable rights which even [Pg 10] the State cannot override, and none of these fundamental rights have been more highly valued in the evolution of English liberty than the rights of a defendant who is charged with crime. ”

“ The world has an abundant refutation of this cruel and cowardly slur upon the memory of a dead woman, for one who first hazarded her life and then gave it freely to save the lives of others—for such was the charge for which she died—is not a woman to restrict her gracious ministrations of mercy for mercenary motives. ”

“ Free defense, that is, light thrown on all the elements of the suit; public sentiment being heard in the bosom of the judgment hall, the right to say everything in the most respectful manner, and also the courage to dare everything, these must be put at the service of the unfortunate one, of justice and law. ”