Edith Louisa Cavell had worked as a nurse in England for a number of years before taking up the position of matron at the Berkendael Institute in Brussels.
This was Belgium’s first nurse training school, and Cavell soon began to bring about dramatic improvements in the standard of nursing in the country.
Although she was visiting her family in Norfolk when the First World War broke out, Edith Cavell soon returned to Belgium where she began working in a Red Cross hospital in occupied Brussels.
Although she and her nurses treated any injured soldier, irrespective of which side they were fighting on, Cavell soon joined an underground network that helped British, French and Belgian soldiers escape to the neutral Netherlands.
Having grown suspicious of her activities, the German authorities arrested Cavell in early August 1915. After being kept in Saint-Gilles prison, she and 34 other people connected to the network were tried at court martial on 5 October.
She had already made a full confession, but was found guilty of treason under the terms of German military law and sentenced to death.
The Geneva Convention usually protected medical personnel, but the fact that Cavell was helping members of the military meant that this was forfeited. Nevertheless her sentence was met with outrage both at home and in neutral countries.
Despite attempts to secure amnesty, Edith Cavell was executed by firing squad on 12 October alongside her fellow defendant Philippe Baucq.
The previous night she had told a visiting chaplain, ‘Patriotism is not enough. I must have no hatred or bitterness towards anyone.’