13. An Angel of Mercy Who Became a Saint
When the Germans deposed Edith Cavell, she confessed. She admitted that she had sheltered about 60 British and 15 French soldiers, plus over 100 Belgian and French civilians of military age, then helped smuggle them across the border. Her admission that she had helped enemy soldiers escape to countries at war with Germany sealed her fate. She was tried before a military tribunal, convicted, and sentenced to death. Legally, the Germans had every right to execute Cavell – a civilian who helped Germany’s enemies in the midst of a declared war. Her protection as a Red Cross nurse was forfeited when she used it as cover to help Germany’s foes.
Politically, however, the German decision to execute the middle-aged nurse, which was carried out by a firing squad on October 12th, 1915, was a public relations disaster. Nurse Cavell became an iconic propaganda figure in Britain. In the then-still-neutral United States, her execution further sullied Germany’s reputation – a reputation already marred by a German U-boat’s sinking of the Lusitania earlier that year, in which 128 Americans were killed. After the war, Cavell’s remains were returned to Britain for a state funeral at Westminster Abbey. To this day, the Church of England commemorates the date of her execution, October 12th, on its Calendar of Saints.
