Cavell, Edith Louisa (1865-1915)

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Catherine Potter Courtney to Jane Addams, October 20, 1915

Harriet Walton Freund to Jane Addams, August 9, 1927

Jane Addams to William Edgar Borah, August 16, 1927

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Birth Date

1865-12-04

Death Date

1915-10-12

Birthplace

Swarsdeston, England

Biographical Text

Edith Cavell was a British nurse who worked at L'Ecole Elge pour les Infirmies Diplomees in Brussels before the war, training nurses and treating patients. When war broke out, she and the other nurses sheltered English and Belgian soldiers and helped smuggle them to safety. As her deeds became well known, she was arrested by German occupiers, tried, and condemned to death. Despite a great diplomatic and popular uproar, the Germans carried out the sentence, and she was killed by a firing squad on October 12, 1915.