Edith Louise Cavell was born in 1865 in Norfolk, in that 'bulge' of the eastern coast called Anglia, the eldest daughter of a vicar and a handmaiden. Well educated and outspoken (she famously lobbied the local bishop for funds for a new hall, and then, when he said he'd match what the town raised, coaxed her sister into painting postcards with her, which they sold as part of a £300 fundraising drive. She was about 12 at the time). She later became a governess, moved to Belgium (something I entirely understand!), had a love affair with her distantly related cousin Eddie (it happens, okay!) and took up nursing at the age of 30 after returning home to care for her father through an unspecified, but serious, illness from which he recovered.
In 1897 she was seconded as part of a group of nurses to care for patients during a typhoid outbreak. Of 1700 who contracted the disease, only 132 died and Edith received the Maidstone Medal for her work there. She worked at famous London hospitals for the poor including St Pancras (night superintendant), Shoreditch (assistant matron) and Manchester and Salford Sick Poor and Private Nursing Institution (matron), where a plaque was mounted in her honour for her work.
In 1907 she returned to Belgium where she found work training professional nurses "along the lines of Florence Nightingale", a role then unknown in Belgium where nursing was carried out largely by nuns with little medical training. She wrote home that "The old idea that it is a disgrace for women to work is still held in Belgium and women of good birth and education still think they lose caste by earning their own living" but the school prospered, helped by patronage from the Queen of Belgium, who sought their care after breaking her arm.
When war broke out, Edith declared her work "more needed than ever", refusing her ageing (and now widowed) mother's pleas to return home. Her nursing work was distinguished by the fact that she accepted German and Allied patients irrespective of nationality, and her clinic became an official Red Cross centre.
At some point during the early part of the War, Edith's clinic began to receive Allied soldiers who had been isolated from their lines, or who had escaped from German captors. All were quietly spirited back to England, often via the Nederlands, through contacts she made in the Underground. While keeping her nursing colleagues completely unaware of her activities, she received and despatched more than 200 soldiers back to their homeland.
Eventually she was discovered and, convinced by her German captors that they knew everything, freely confessed. Edith was tried, convicted and sentenced to death. On the morning of her execution, on October 12 1915, she dedicated one of her books to her cousin Eddie, packed her possessions into a handbag to be sent home to England, and begged the German priest to send word to her mother, now aged 80, so that she wouldn't hear of it first through the newspapers. Edith Cavell was executed by firing squad by men who were told that, although she was a woman, she is not a mother, so don't feel too bad about aiming true.
The priest who attended her that last morning passed on to the world her last words:
"I am thankful to have had these ten weeks of quiet to get ready ...Standing as I do in view of God and Eternity, I realise that patriotism is not enough, I must have no hatred or bitterness towards anyone".
You can read a detailed account of her life, including the priest's full account, here and I am endebted to this article for the information contained above.
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