On this day: Oct 17, 1915
Miss Edith Cavell, who, as announced in the Foreign Office communiqué published in The Times on Saturday, was executed by the Germans at Brussels on October 13 for harbouring British, French, and Belgian soldiers and assisting them to escape, was the daughter of Mrs Cavell, widow of the Rev Frederick Cavell, 40 years vicar of Swardeston, Norfolk. There is another daughter, Mrs Wainwright, wife of Dr Wainwright, of Henley-on-Thames. Mrs Cavell, who lives at 24 College Road, Norwich, had not heard from her daughter Edith since April.
Miss Cavell was trained as a nurse at the London Hospital, and on the opening of the Ecole Belge d’lnfirmières Diplômées, Brussels, in 1907, was appointed matron of the school. Mrs Bedford Fenwick, who was president of the International Congress of Nurses held in London in 1900, stated yesterday that Miss Cavell attended that gathering and read a paper on nursing in Belgium. Mrs Bedford Fenwick was greatly impressed by Miss Cavell’s strength of character and devotion to duty. She went to Brussels to introduce into Belgium British methods of nursing and of training nurses; and in that task she succeeded so well that the number of pupils under her direction increased from 13 in 1909 to 32 three years later.
“The nursing profession,” said Mrs Bedford Fenwick, “regard Miss Cavell as one who has died a glorious death. She could have returned to England in September 1914, when 70 English nurses were able to leave Belgium through the good offices of the United States Ambassador, but she chose to remain at her post. She was a resolute woman, and I am sure she would entertain no fear of the Germans and would not be diverted from doing that which she believed to be right.” ● marriage of broken heroes The Rev Ernest Houghton, rector of St Stephen’s, Bristol, who has been taking the leading part in the organization of a “League for the Marrying of Wounded Heroes”, announced from the pulpit yesterday that, in courtesy to the wish of the Bishop of Bristol, he had resigned any official position he had on the proposed league. He added that he had received over 400 letters from all parts of the country and from all classes. All letters will be returned.