Edith Cavell

Edith Lousia Cavell (December 4, 1865 - October 12, 1915) is one of the few famous heroines of World War I.

Nurse Cavell was born in Norfolk in 1865 and trained as a nurse. In 1907, she was appointed matron of a hospital in Brussels in Belgium. When World War I broke out, the hospital was taken over by the Red Cross. Nurse Cavell is alleged to have helped hundreds of soldiers from the allied forces to escape from occupied Belgium to the Netherlands. In 1915, she was arrested and court-martialled by the Germans for this offence. She made no defence and was shot, becoming a popular martyr and going down in British history as a heroine.

The night before her execution she told the English chaplain, who had been allowed to see her, "I realise that patriotism is not enough, I must have no hatred or bitterness towards anyone." These words are inscribed on her statue in St. Martin's Place, near Trafalgar Square in London.

After the war Edith Cavell was reburied in the grounds of Norwich Cathedral.