Heroine and Spy? The life and times of Nurse Edith Cavell.

Nurse Edith Cavell.

I have known about nurse Edith Louisa Cavell (Born 4th Dec 1865, Norfolk - Executed Brussels 12th Oct 1915) for many years not only through family talk but also through an inappropriate sketch by Hylda Baker back in the days of black and white TV. I remember this sketch, with her straight 'man' Cynthia, who was dressed as a nurse and Hylda Baker saying to her, 'Who do you think you are Edith Cavell'! This caused my elderly relatives and the live audience to 'tut tut' and wag their heads. But why did I start this small piece of research and subsequent writing on Cavell? Well it came about by revisiting a set of WW I propaganda photos I had been given in the 1960s and then trying to piece together the legends on the backs of them, but more of that later! So let's look at Edith Cavell and her story.

The home of the Cavell family, Swardeston. The initials 'FC' can be seen above the left hand top window. (Photo Iain MacFarlaine. 'Find a grave.com')

Edith Cavell was born on the 4th of December 1865 in Swardeston, a village in Norforlk, a daughter of the Reverend Frederick Cavell and his wife Louisa. She had two younger sisters and a younger brother. Her upbringing taught her to be scrupulously honest which was to some extent responsible for her eventual down fall.

Edith Cavell as a teenager. (Photo Belgium .eu)

Edith Cavell's formal educations was at Norwich High School for Girls and at boarding schools in Kensington and Clevedon in Somerset and then Peterborough. In the Lincolnshire school she became a pupil teacher and learnt French, for which she had a talent. In 1856 she became a Governess to a vicar's children at Steeple Bumpstead in Essex and after that for, a short time, for the Gurney family in Keswick Hall three miles from Norwich. The family had built the hall in 1817 in Keswick, but its subsequent uses lead to many changes and additions.

Keswick Hall, Norfolk. Built by William Wilkins for the Gurney family. This Quaker family were rich because of their bank which was formed in 1770 and which became Barclays bank in 1896. (Photo by Bidwells, Property Consultants)

Edith Cavell as a Governess. (Photo Belgium eu)

A small legacy allowed her to travel in 1888 to Europe and visit Austria and Bavaria. It was in Bavaria that she visited a Free Hospital run by a Dr Wolfenberg and to whose hospital she donated some of her legacy for instruments. This visit kindled her initial interest in nursing. Between 1890 and 1895 she was a Governess in Brussels working for the François family but returned to England to nurse her father through a serious illness from which he recovered. This experience inspired her and she decided to train as a nurse. In 1895, she worked for seven months as an untrained nurse at the Fountains Fever Hospital in Tooting, South London, carrying out unskilled tasks. In 1896 aged 30 she became a nurse probationer on a two year course in The London Hospital, formally the London Infirmary, later and finally named the Royal London Hospital. This course had been reduced from three to two years and refined by the then Matron, Eva Lȕckas. During her training she worked in various London hospitals but having had some Fever Training was sent in 1897, by Eva Lȕckas, with five others from the hospital, to Maidstone to help with an outbreak of Typhoid (1897-98). For this she was awarded the Silver Maidstone Medal.

The Maidstone Typhoid Medal (Photo Bonhams Catalogue)

The final report on her by her Matron was not a totally glowing one, pointing both to her strengths as well as her failings and suggesting a career as a Private Nurse, a career which didn't appeal to Edith Cavell. In 1901 she went to work at St Pancras Infirmary, largely used by paupers and pregnant women, but then moved back to the East End and in 1903 to the Shoreditch Infirmary as Assistant Matron under the then Matron Miss Inglis. Although the two didn't really hit it off Miss Inglis spoke highly of her dedication.

A Brussels surgeon, Antoine Depage, had become disenchanted with the medical nursing of the common religious based hospitals and wanted a more updated 'Florence Nightingale' approach. This reflected the growing opinion at the time that religious based hospitals were not keeping up with the advances in medicine. Depage wanted someone who could teach, was a good administrator and fluent in French to head his new hospital. Edith Cavel fitted the specifications and in 1907 she was recruited to be the Matron/Director of Depage's new Institute of Nursing, the Berkendael Institute of Brussels.

Edith Cavell (Director, in dark dress) with Dr Depage and nurses at his new Institute of Nursing in Brussels. (Photo Daily Telegraph.co)

Under her directorship the institute prospered and grew although she had little sense of humour but a great sense of discipline. During this time she visited England to see her mother, by now a widow of some four years, and it was during this time WW I broke out and she returned to Brussels and her nursing responsibilities though much against the wishes of her family.

The German army invaded Belgium on Aug 4th 1914 in violation of Belgium's neutrality. On Aug 23 1914 the battle of Mons took place in an attempt to attempt by the British and allies to drive the German out of Belgium. Lasting for 9 hours the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) of 100,000 men, was beaten back by the German army sending them into retreat, a retreat which lasted until early Sept 1914 when the Battle of Marne took place. Although the first Battle of Marne (Sept 1914) drove the Germans northwards they still remained in control of Belgium for the duration of the war.

In the British retreat after the Battle of Mons men became separated from their regiments and two a couple of soldiers were aided by a Belgium engineer called Herman Capiau who took the soldiers to Edith Cavell in Brussels although by this time Belgium had come under German military rule with the German HQ in the same town.

The retreat from the Battle of Mons. August 24th-Sept 5th 1914 (Photo. Imperial War Museum)

The very quick victory by the German army at Mons had rather caught the British intelligence on the wrong foot, thwarting many of their plans although among the civilians a number of people had set up underground escape and spying operations but they were a little amateurish and uncoordinated. Nurse Cavell's operation was initially one such organisation. It's important to realise that resistance and spying in WW I were not particularly well developed or co-ordinated compared to subsequent conflicts. The problem for the British was although they had tried to put in place a spy system as the war built up but the German advance was so fast that it quickly over took their plans. There quickly arose the need to have information on German supply depots, troop reinforcements, air strips, fuel dumps, maintenance areas etc all of which were now laying well behind a front line of extensive German trenches and out of the reach of the official British intelligence network. Thus civilian informants became an obvious source of information and the organisation to which Cavell belonged became involved.

Nurse Edith Cavell in later life. She was executed when she was 49. (Photo WW 1 Propaganda set. Chris Coulson collection)

Although Edith Cavell was primarily known for smuggling about 200 (possibly 900) British and allied soldiers out of Belgium she did keep a secret diary which she sewed into a cushion to avoid discovery and she also wrote coded messages to the British authorities on linen strips which were smuggled out of Belgium in the clothing or shoes of soldiers whose escape she was aiding. This was actually an act of espionage which could have made her eventual fate easier for the Germans. Meanwhile it seems others in the different organisations were also sending out messages. The fact that Louise Thuliez, a teacher from Lille and on holiday got involved by going out with another to scout rural escape routes seems to underscore the initial rather amateurish nature of espionage at the time. However, she did much work in aiding the escape of British and Allied soldiers. She was arrested in October 1915 and given hard labour by the German Military Court but died in September 1918 following a lung operation in Germany. She was posthumously awarded the Cross of the Legion of Honour in France in 1920.

On November 1st in 1914, a wet night, a currier with a letter from Dr Antoine Defage's wife, arrived at the nursing school with two British soldiers, a Colonel Dudley Boger (wounded) and a Sergeant Meakin -- both of the 1st Cheshire Regiment. The letter asked Edith Cavell to help the two soldiers escape to Holland, a neuitral country. Both these soldiers as well as many others spoke highly of Nurse Cavell and the help and treatment they received from her.

Colonel Dudley Boger. Commander of 1st Cheshire Regement in the Battle of Mons, Aug 1914. (Photo Virginia Commonwealth University Libraries)

It might be remembered that Dr Antoine Defage initially set up the Nursing Institute and had hired Edith Cavell to run it. When she agreed to help the two soldiers the larger resistance organisation allowed her to join them which of course lead eventually to her death.

Nurse Cavell helped about 200 (perhaps more) British and allied soldiers to cross the Belgium boarder to reach neutral Holland and so go to either Britain or France. Although many Belgians in the countryside helped to hide escaping soldiers the German presence there and the increased chance of discovery forced the resistance to use towns for hiding them. However, the penalties for being involved were very severe. In these clandestine operations Edith Cavell tried to act alone so as not to compromise the nurses of the institute but the front door of her Institute lead directly onto the street and was easily observed by informants as well as the secret police.

Newer evidence indicates that Cavell was 'officially' involved in more than just the escape of allied soldiers. Dame Stella Rimington, the ex Director General of MI5, examined reports concerning Cavell and in a BBC programme in Sept 2015, having visited the Brussels's archives, asserted that Nurse Cavell was indeed a spy transmitting military information to the British about, for instance, German trenches and supply dumps. This information was apparently passed to a Dr Bull, a long time resident of Brussels, but who was also a conduit for the British Secret Service Bureau in London, the forerunner of MI6. The German Secret Police were very thorough in their investigations and the net started to close on Edith Cavell.

Escaping allied soldiers made contact with Cavell, Louis Séverin or others in the organisation who then directed them to 'safe houses'. They were given money and Phillipe Baucq provided guides to take them to the Dutch boarder. But one day in 1915 a 'French soldier' by the name of Georges Gaston Quien arrived at the Institute saying he needed to reach France to rejoin his regiment to continue the fight against the Germans.

Georges Gaston Quien the French man who betrayed Nurse Cavell to the Germans in 1915. In 1919 he was tried in France and condemned to death but in 1920 this was commuted to 20 years in prison. (Photo galluica.bnf.fr).

In spite of being French Quien was in fact a collaborator with the Germans and while at the nursing institute infiltrated the Cavell's escape organisation! He stayed in the Institute for three weeks and in that time passed information to the Germans. After the war in Sept 1919 he was tried in France as a collaborator and sentenced to death but in Feb 1920 this was commuted to a twenty years in prison. He always protested his innocence and wanted a retrial but this never took place.

In the early summer of 1915 the German Secret Police came to search Cavell's nursing institute. This was alarming but Elizabeth Wilkins, a senior nurse, managed to hide some of Edith Cavell's papers in the high cistern of a toilet and they were never found. However, on July 31st another raid occurred else where and documents were found with names incriminating people in the escape organisation.

The Germans arrested Nurse Cavell on Aug 3rd, 1915 for 'war treason' but a problem they faced was what she actually guilty of? At the time they didn't really know about her spying and so were unable to pin any charges of espionage on her. They were left with 'people smuggling' i.e. helping British and Allied soldiers escape. Although she gave three depositions to the German police admitting her guilt it seems the Germans struggled with their military code to find a reason for the arrest and charging of Cavell, who after all was a civilian, but they did manage it under the concept that although a civilian she was within a war zone acting against the occupying powers and she was charged with 'War Treason'.

During her trial the honesty instilled in her by her upbringing was the root of her admitting her guilt. However, there has been some suggestion that the records of her apparent admissions where not as accurately recorded as they might have been. Baron von der Lancken, the German political representative in Brussels actually pleaded for a custodial sentence rather than death because of her honesty at her trial.

Nurse Cavell's cell at St Gilles Prison. (Photo. WW 1 Propaganda photo. Collection of Chris Coulson)

Although any evidence against her was slight it was deemed enough to sentence her under German military law to death by firing squad. She was tried on the 7th Oct and sentenced on the 8th along with 34 other co-conspirators. Cavell spend ten weeks in St Gilles prison, two of them in solitary confinement, before her execution.

On discovery of the 'escape organisation' and the information from informants among the others condemned to death were: Phillipe Bancq, Brussels Archetect; Louise Thuliez, teacher of Lille; The Countess Jeanne de Bellville of Montignies and Louis Séverin, pharmacist of Brussels. They were all implicated in the escape net work but their sentences where later commuted and they faced a jail sentence and not the firing squad except for Phillipe Bancq who was shot next to Edith Cavell. Although under the First Geneva Convention medical personnel were protected except when they used their occupation/position as a cover for treasonable activities. Which of course Edith Cavell did.

A commemorative post card of the Tir National in Brussels with the pictures of Garielle Petit and Nurse Cavell at the top corners. Garielle Petit was a Belgian who spied for the British and was shot by the Germans on April 1st 1916 at Tir National (Post card by Marco Marcoviel, Virginia Commonwealth University Libraries)

Because of improved armaments this large military training complex called the Tir National had been modernised in late 1886 to have a shooting range of 600 yards but in the case of Cavell's and Bancq's execution the firing squad was only six paces away. Cavell along with Gabriella Petitt (a Belgium spy for the British) are immortalised on a post card of the period showing the Tir Nationale (see above).

The German proclamation in French ordered by General von Bissing, the Governor General of German occupied Belgium, condemning six of Nurse Cavell's escape organisation to death. Four were reprieved. (Photo Imperial War Museum).

The sentence on Edith Cavell produced an international furore following on the heels, as it did, of a German submarine sinking the Lusitania in May 1915. Appeals, on the night before the execution, were made to Baron von der Lancken, the German political representative in Brussels by Hugh Gibson (1883-1954) the Secretary to the American Ambassador, and the Spanish Ambassador. Their strident arguments did cause von der Lancken to go and see General Saubersweig the German Military Governor in Brussels but the General wouldn't accept the political folly of this course of action and refused to change his mind. At one point it was even suggested that the Kaiser should be contacted but this was turned down on the grounds he would be asleep. Later it was said that had General Saubersweig done this the Kaiser would have commuted Cavell's death sentence.

Hugh Gibson Secretary to the American Ambassador in Brussels during the Edith Cavell affair. (Photo En Wikipedia)

In her cell on the night before her execution Edith Cavell told her Anglican pastor, the Reverend Stirling Gahan, 'I expected my sentence and believe it was just. I know that patriotism is not enough. It is not enough to love one’s own people. One must love all men and hate none'. At 6 am her and Baucq were driven to the Tir National. Just before her execution she also said to the German Catholic Pastor, Le Seurr, ''--- tell my loved ones later on that I believe my soul is safe, and that I am glad to die for my country.” These words are inscribed on her statue in St Martins near Trafalgar Square. Apparently the Pastor spent much more time talking to Phillipe Baucq, a Catholic, than Edith Cavell. Baucq tried to make a speech before he was shot but he was stopped in doing this. They were both shot at the same time.

The place at the Tir National where Nurse Cavell was executed. The stool is rather misleading as she didn't sit, although some did, but was bound loosely to a post. The Director M. Colinet stands on the other side of the wall. (Photo WW I Propaganda photo. Chris Coulson collection)

The actual facts of her execution vary but what seems to have been likely was she was bound lightly to a post (not sat on a stool as some accounts say and is hinted at in a photo above) and although she apparently refused a blindfold it is said there were tears in her eyes when it was offered. A further non truth that for a while gained traction was that she fainted before her execution and that while on the ground an officer killed her with a pistol shot to the head.

A firing squad of eight fired though but it could have been less if Fritz Rammles 'threw down his rifle' as one account says. Rammles was then executed for his decision and buried between Cavell and Baucq. In the 1939 film 'Nurse Edith Cavell' produced by Herbut Wilcox and staring Anna Neagle one of the firing squad lowers his rifle and fires in to the ground. Was this supposed to be Rammles?

The exhumed body of Fritz Rammles (Photo WW 1 Propaganda set. Chris Coulson collection)

The hand written legend on the back of the above photograph. A slight variation on what was said to have happened.

(Photo Propaganda set. Chris Coulson collection)

Her final words written in her prayer book said -- 'Arrested 5 Aug. 1915. Imprisoned at St Gilles 7th Aug 1915. Court martialled 7th October 1915. Condemned to death in the Salle des Députés on 8th Oct., with four others. Died at 7 a.m. on Oct. 12th, 1915'. She must have guessed her time of death having written this before hand.

After Cavell's execution she is said to have 'tried to rise three times' but this was thought to be a reflex action as the exit holes of the bullets in her back indicate she died instantly. However, although dead a German officer is said to have shot her in a 'coup de grace'. The Spanish ambassador had arranged that Belgium women would bury her at once in the grounds of Saint-Gilles Prison. After the war her body was exhumed and brought to Britain to be buried at Norwich Cathedral, a burial which required the intervention of King George.

This Cinderella Stamp, so called as it is not really a stamp, shows a German officer pistol in hand having apparently performed the 'coup de grace' on Nurse Cavell. The wording was no doubt intended to inflame the anti German passions of the British public. (Pinterest.com)

The event generated much anti German feeling and as the war was going badly for the allies the British capitalised on Cavell's execution with the publication of much propaganda material. The film 'Nurse Edith Cavell' which was made in America and produced by the British producer Herbert Wilcox stared Anna Neagle was released in 1939 as the dark clouds of World War II collected over Europe. The film sought to transfer anti-German feeling from WW I to WW II.

A British Empire Union (BEU) recruiting poster. THe BEU was formed in 1916 and was an anti-socialism group. In 1960 it was renamed British Commonwealth Union and in 1975 ceased its political activities.

In the East Riding of Yorkshire there is a monument at the side of the road near to Sledmere House entrance, called the Wagoners Memorial. This memorial was erected by Sir Mark Sykes in 1919/20 and has panels depicting the men who left his estate to fight in WW I. One carved panel shows despotic German troops burning a church and about to kill a woman. Clearly a piece of anti German propaganda.

Detail from the Wagoners Memorial at Sledmere House, East Yorkshire hinting at the misdeeds of German soldiers. (Photo Chris Coulson)

We can now turn to the photographs which started my study of Nurse Edith Cavell. What are they and how did they end up with me?

I only have part of the story as they were given to me in the 1960s by a now deceased lady called Mrs Fanny Dobson (1891-1978) . She had a hard and unfortunate life. She married a farm labourer from Pocklington in her teens whose last name was Swaby (?) but who sadly died within a year of their marriage. Being still young she came to Hull, a prosperous town with employment, to earn a living as a maid/cleaner and indeed worked for, besides others, my Grandmother in Mayfield Street and then for her in Marlborough Ave. She also eventually worked for my parents in Marlborough Ave after their hurried exit from France during WWII. Fanny Dobson is still remembered by one or two older residents in the area.

Courted by her second husband, Bill Dobson, she married him and forever after she was always known as 'Dobby'. Bill's main claim to fame, besides not working much, was being photographed in the Polar Bear pub, with a pint of beer and being called 'a regular'! 'Dobby' died with this photo in her hand bag --she was very proud of it. Bill also kept rabbits for food in the very small back yard of their rented house down Minnies Grove off Mayfield Street. I remember the floor of their front room rotted and fell through and the landlord refused to mend it. Bill passed away in the mid 60s, but not without drama, leaving Fanny again bereft of support. She continued to 'char' into her 80s when, due to illness, she ended up in the in the old almshouse (Designed by Smith and Brodrick) now Northumberland Court, off Fountains Road. I remember visiting her there. At 80 there was little she could do but would insist on coming and would sit and clean bass-ware at our table and have lunch, licking her plate afterwards! When she first received her 'old age pension' she tried to return some as she said it was too much!

An elderly Fanny Dobson in Pearson Park,Hull. (Photo Chris Coulson)

But the question is why did she have these photographs? Certainly she lived through WWI when anti German feelings ran high and she did visit the nearby coastal town of Withernsea where Edith Cavell's sister lived and worked as a nurse. Perhaps it could be as simple as she was just given them by some one unknown. It's curious how one thing leads to another!

So what do we know of the 10 (orignally12) photos I have: Well the images were part of a set of 12 put out as anti German propaganda. The execution of Edith Cavell caused such an out break of anti German ill feeling that this series of 'post cards' was produced as a souvenir and are catalogued under 'Souvenir postcards (12) in a paper envelope entitled 'National Shooting Range (Belgium) - Souvenir of the Civilian Martyrs of the Great War 1914 - 1918'. (387-Royal London Hospital Archives, in National Archives).

The photos I have are numbered in a different order to the National Archive ones. It seems there are different sets of these photos possibly done by different printing companies when it was realised they were 'money making souvenirs'. In most of these sets (varying from 8 to 12 photos) the legend is printed on the back, some times in three different languages.

In my set the legends are written in a cursive hand in black ink. Not all the photographs are identical with those I have seen. For instance one photo of the statue of Garbrielle Petit (the Belgian spy) that I have seen has a printed inscription on the kerb of the plinth while mine doesn't. Apparently in some of the photos of corpses in the coffins the bodies differ as well as their names.

The statue commemorating Gabrielle Petit. On this photo there is no printed instruction around the kerb of the monument. (Photo. WW 1 Propaganda set. Chris Coulson collection)

The handwritten legend on the back of the above photograph. (Photo Propaganda st. Chris Coulson collection)

But who was Rammler whose body is seen post exhumation above in a coffin? As recounted Fritz Rammler is thought to have refused to shoot a woman but another story says he was an German NCO at a Zeppelin factory near Brussels caught passing information to the allies and was shot for this. A further story says he was a German Officer caught passing false 'passe-ports' (sic) to Belgians wishing to leave their country to take up arms against the Germans.

Of course another question is how did these photos end up with me. Well, I only have part of the story as they were given to me by a now deceased lady called Mrs Fanny Dobson (1891-1978) in the 1960s. She had a hard and unfortunate life, first marrying a farm labourer from Pocklington in her teens. His last name was Swaby (?) but who sadly died within a year of their marriage. Being still young she came to Hull, a prosperous town with employment, to earn a living as a maid/cleaner and indeed worked for, besides others, my Grandmother in Mayfield Street and then for her in Marlborough Ave. and also eventually my parents in Marlborough Ave after their hurried exit from France during WWII. Fanny Dobson is still remembered by one or two Avenue's residents.

Courted by her second husband, Bill Dobson, she married him and forever after she was always known as 'Dobby'. Bill's main claim to fame, besides not working much, was being photographed in the Polar Bear pub, with a pint of beer, the Hull Daily Mail picture legend calling him 'a regular'! 'Dobby' died with this photo in her hand bag --she was very proud of it. Bill also kept rabbits for food in the very back small yard of their rented house down Minnies Grove off Mayfield Street. I remember the floor of their front room rotted and fell through and the landlord refusing to mend it. Bill passed away in the mid 60s, but not without drama, leaving Fanny again bereft of support. She continued to 'char' into her 80s when, due to illness, she ended up in the in the old almshouse (Designed by Smith and Brodrick) now Northumberland Court, off Fountains road. I remember visiting her there. At 80 there was little she could do but would insist on coming and would sit and clean bass-ware at our table and have lunch. Licking her plate afterwards!

But a question is why did she have these photographs? Certainly she lived through WW I when anti German feelings ran high and she did visit Withernsea where Edith Cavell's sister lived and worked as a nurse. Perhaps it could be as simple as she was just given them by someone unknown. It's curious how one thing leads to another!

My propaganda set is made up of the following photos

1. King George and Queen Mary visiting the Cavell memorial

2. Memorial to the civilians shot by the Germans

3. Nurse Cavell

4. Cavell's cell in St Gilles prison

5.Execution ground where Nurse Cavell was shot

6. Exhumed body of Fritz Rammles

7.Graves of French soldiers shot at dawn

8.British soldiers take possession of Nurse Cavell's body for repatriation.

9/10 Missing

11.Monument to Gabrielle Petit (Belgian spy for the British)

12 Exhumed body of an officer

Chris Coulson July 2020