Edith Cavell

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12 October, 1915, 49 year old British nurse Edith Cavell put on her Red Cross nurse's uniform one last time before being taken from the St Gilles prison to the Tir National Firing Range, to meet her fate...

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Inspired by Florence Nightingale, Edith entered nursing in 1896. Within a decade of graduating from the London Hospital, she was busy establishing the first nursing school in Brussels, L’École Belge d’Infirmières Diplômées. By 1910, she had launched her first nursing journal, L'infirmière. By 1914, her school was receiving international acclaim. Then WWI was declared...

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WWI, she joined the Red Cross, treating casualties with missing limbs, shrapnel wounds, trench foot and so on, from both sides of the conflict. One dark night, 2 wounded soldiers knocked at her door. She didn't hesitate. In all, as part of the resistance movement, she helped over 200 Allied soldiers escape to safety. Then, the inevitable happened. She's arrested. With a signed confession and only 130 words uttered in her defence, is found guilty and sentenced to death. Just a nurse, who did her duty!

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"...I certified her death, closed her eyes, and placed her body in the coffin. She was the bravest woman I ever met."

Gottfried Benn, German poet, senior German doctor in Brussels, 1915.