London only

In 1915 Edith Cavell, a British nurse, was shot at dawn by a German firing squad in Brussels in 1915 for helping hundreds of allied soldiers escape from occupied Belgium. In Britain there was a huge public outcry. “Everybody must feel disgusted at the barbarous actions of the German soldiery in murdering this great and glorious specimen of womanhood,” wrote Arthur Conan Doyle at the time.

By many Cavell is remembered as a pioneering nurse who had returned to Belgium, where she had set up the first secular training hospital for nurses, after the outbreak of war in 1914 to nurse injured soldiers. “At a time like this, I am needed more than ever”, she said. But the facts is a little less comforting.

The war was not going well for the allies in October 1915 and Cavel execution inadvertently provided an ideal opportunity for demonising the ‘enemy’ and stiffening public morale and perhaps more importantly in the face of mounting death toll help with recruiting. There was a surge in the number of volunteers signing up to join the British Army.

Following Cavels execution, MI5 was anxious to suppress anything that would implicate her in spying. Stella Rimington, a former head of the intelligence agency, said after researching Belgian archives: “Her main objective was to get hidden allied soldiers back to Britain but, contrary to the common perception of her, we have uncovered clear evidence that her organisation was involved in sending back secret intelligence to the allies.” The intelligence included information about a German trench system, the location of munitions dumps and aircraft. Details were written in ink on strips of fabric and sewn into clothes, or hidden in shoes and boots. Though what precisely Cavell knew about the spying network is unclear. According to Richard Maguire of the University of East Anglia “I think we now have to accept that the likelihood is that Cavell was working for British intelligence, or at the very least was happy for the network to be used for its purposes.”
“Does this make Cavell a spy? That depends upon your definition of the term. I would argue that the balance of evidence suggests that she was certainly an active and very successful agent for the British government’s war effort.”

Cavell Memorial Norwich 1932
Cavell Memorial Norwich 1951
Cavell Memorial Norwich Prsent Day

See Cavell memorial in London
Cavell memorial in Brussels coming soon