While there she worshipped at Sacred Trinity Church on Chapel Street, Salford and her name is included on the church war memorial. In 1906 she took a temporary post as matron of the Manchester and Salford Sick and Poor and Private Nursing Institution and worked there for about nine months. Along with other staff she was awarded the Maidstone Medal. Ĭavell was sent to assist with the typhoid outbreak in Maidstone during 1897. As a private travelling nurse, treating patients in their homes, Cavell travelled to tend patients with cancer, gout, pneumonia, pleurisy, eye issues and appendicitis. She worked in various hospitals in England, including Shoreditch Infirmary (since renamed St Leonard's Hospital). In April 1896, at the age of 30, Cavell applied to become a nurse probationer at the London Hospital under Matron Eva Luckes. The experience led her to become a nurse after her father's recovery. Īfter a period as a governess, including for a family in Brussels from 1890 to 1895, she returned home to care for her father during a serious illness. She was educated at Norwich High School for Girls, then boarding schools in Clevedon, Somerset and Peterborough (Laurel Court). She was the eldest of the four children of the Reverend Frederick Cavell (1824–1910) and his wife Louisa Sophia Warming (1835–1918).
She was quoted as saying, "I can’t stop while there are lives to be saved." The Church of England commemorates her in its Calendar of Saints on 12 October.Ĭavell, who was 49 at the time of her execution, was already notable as a pioneer of modern nursing in Belgium.Ĭavell (seated centre) with a group of multinational student nurses whom she trained in BrusselsĬavell was born on 4 December 1865 in Swardeston, a village near Norwich, where her father was vicar for 45 years. Her strong Anglican beliefs propelled her to help all those who needed it, both German and Allied soldiers. I must have no hatred or bitterness towards anyone." These words were later inscribed on a memorial to her near Trafalgar Square. The night before her execution, she said, "Patriotism is not enough. Her execution received worldwide condemnation and extensive press coverage. Despite international pressure for mercy, she was shot by a German firing squad. She was accused of treason, found guilty by a court-martial and sentenced to death. She is celebrated for saving the lives of soldiers from both sides without discrimination and for helping some 200 Allied soldiers escape from German-occupied Belgium during the First World War, for which she was arrested. Tir national (National Shooting Range), Schaerbeek, Brussels, BelgiumĮdith Louisa Cavell ( / ˈ k æ v əl/ 4 December 1865 – 12 October 1915) was a British nurse.