Nurse Edith Cavell

Edith Cavell was a nurse who was executed by the Germans during World War I. Her death did much to excite anti-German feelings in Great Britain and make the British more determined to win the War.

A notable statue

This statue stands in St Martin’s Place in central London, opposite the entrance to the National Portrait Gallery and facing towards Trafalgar Square. It is therefore seen by thousands of people every day, many of whom may not know the story behind it.

The woman portrayed is Edith Cavell, a nurse who died during the First World War, shot by a German firing squad. The wording on the statue gives the details of her death: “Brussels Dawn October 12^th 1915” but not her birth, which was in 1865. Below this is a quotation of words she spoke shortly before her execution: “Patriotism is not enough, I must have no hatred or bitterness for anyone”.

Behind the statue is a high stone plinth, twice the height of the statue, with the words “For King and Country” at the top and four words around the sides of the plinth: Humanity, Fortitude, Devotion and Sacrifice.

The statue, by Sir George Frampton, was erected in 1920 and unveiled by Queen Alexandra. The quotation mentioned above was added in 1924.

Edith Cavell

So who was Edith Cavell? She was a London-trained nurse who established a clinic and nursing school in Brussels, Belgium, in 1910. On the outbreak of World War I in 1914 she had been in England but returned to Brussels to continue her work there. Belgium was quickly overrun by the German army and Nurse Cavell was kept very busy treating wounded soldiers of several nationalities, including Germans.

She became involved in a scheme to smuggle British and French soldiers out of Belgium to neutral Holland, from where they could be repatriated rather than taken prisoner. She allowed her house to be part of the chain of safe houses through which the scheme was conducted, and for this reason she was arrested by the Germans in August 1915. The total number of British and French prisoners of war, and Belgian civilians, that she helped to escape was probably around 200.

Despite representations made from many quarters, including the still neutral United States, Edith Cavell and another conspirator faced the firing squad. She died instantly from four bullet wounds. Her body was initially buried in Brussels but was later (after the end of the war) repatriated to Britain where she was finally laid to rest in Norwich Cathedral, not far from her home village.

A spy or a traitor?

It is sometimes implied that Edith Cavell was executed for espionage, but this is not so. Her activities counted as treason according to the German military law that now applied to Belgium, and the law made no distinction between German nationals and those of other countries who happened to be living in German-occupied territories.

Whether or not Germany was legally justified in executing Edith Cavell, and the facts do seem to point in that direction, doing so was probably unwise because the event became something of a recruitment poster in Great Britain at a time before conscription was introduced. Much play was made of the fact that Edith Cavell’s actions had been entirely humanitarian and that she made no distinction between nationalities when it came to treating wounded soldiers.

On the other hand, Germany could be painted in the British press as a source of evil and a regime that condemned women to death, which was something that Britain never did during World War I, whatever the circumstances. Not much was needed to cast Germany in the role of monster, and to persuade young men to join the army to prevent more such horrors taking place, but the death of Edith Cavell was one such happening.

The impressive statue will continue to remind passers-by of the brave and remarkable woman who displayed those qualities of humanity, fortitude, devotion and sacrifice in equal measure.

© John Welford

Mata Hari, a dancer who was probably not a spy

13^th March 1905 was the day on which a new sensation arrived in Paris, in the sensuous shape of a dancer who gave her first performance under the name Mata Hari.

She had been born in the Netherlands in 1876 as Margaretha Zella, but had spent some time in Java as the wife of a man who mistreated her and from whom she divorced before returning to Europe.

At the age of nearly 30 she did not find it easy to find another husband or a secure job, so she moved from Amsterdam to Paris and re-invented herself as a mysterious temple dancer from the East who would captivate every man who saw her.

Her stage performance as Mata Hari (the name is a Malay term for the Sun) was highly erotic and, not surprisingly, extremely popular. However, she knew that her career in this role would be limited and turned increasingly to using her body in a different way. She found no shortage of clients, many of whom were rich and highly connected.

She travelled widely across Europe and, as war approached in 1914, she was on a six-month contract in Berlin. Although the facts are not completely clear, it appears that she was recruited by French Intelligence to seduce German officers and learn their secrets. It is not known how successful she was at this task.

However, after she had returned to Amsterdam in 1916 she was approached by the German consul and offered money to spy for Germany. She was also given a codename.

There is no evidence that Mata Hari ever spied for Germany, or intended to, and it is highly likely that she regarded the payment as compensation for the furs she had had to leave behind in Berlin. Her problem was that the codename was intercepted by French Intelligence who arrested Mata Hari and put her on trial as a double agent.

The trial was a travesty of justice in which Mata Hari stood no chance of being able to defend herself. The fact that she had taken German money was enough to condemn her.

Mata Hari therefore faced the firing squad on 15^th October 1917. She refused the customary blindfold and blew a kiss to her executioners. Her body was later used for dissection at a French medical school.

© John Welford

Corporal Alvin York, a hero from World War One

On 8^th October 1918 an American soldier, Corporal Alvin C York from Tennessee, carried out one of the most remarkable acts of single-handed bravery in the whole of World War One, or possibly any war, come to that.

The bravery of Corporal York

At dawn on 8^th October 1918, Corporal York’s platoon of the 328^th Infantry Battalion was in trouble during an operation in the Argonne Forest of north-eastern France. They were under heavy machine-gun fire and taking casualties. A detachment of 17 men, including York, were determined to do something about it and found a way of getting to the rear of the machine-gun nest from which all the fire was coming.

However, once the Germans were aware of what the Americans were doing they swung round to attack York’s detachment, and six of the Americans were quickly killed. York was now the most senior man left and he took it upon himself to make use of his sharpshooting skills and save the situation.

With more than 30 machine guns in the nest, York had to be accurate with his shots, and he was. Every time a gun swung in his direction a German head was exposed for a brief moment, and York fired at it, never missing once.

The Germans then tried a different move, namely jumping out of their trench and charging at him with fixed bayonets. York used his automatic pistol to take the Germans out one at a time, making sure that he shot the man nearest to him, so that each man leaving the trench would not be aware of the danger he faced until it was too late – he wanted them to keep charging rather than dropping down and shooting at him.

Eventually the Germans gave up and all the remaining soldiers surrendered to him. In one morning Corporal York had killed 20 German machine-gunners, put 35 of their guns out of action and captured 132 men.

For his action he was promoted to sergeant and awarded the Medal of Honour (the American equivalent of the Victoria Cross), which he received from the hands of General Pershing.

© John Welford