General Chat

In Northland NZ (Paparoa) the local hospital was called Edith Cavell Memorial Hospita. It has long since closed. My great uncle spent time in there after cutting his leg with an axe in about 1917.

A special woman who has probably inspired many nurses to pursue the vocation.

Lizx

Leni, a good nurse always puts her patients first, as shown by nurses in the London hospitals during the war, when they stayed with their patients through massive airraids. I am sure you would have come up to scratch. We had a small figurine of Edith Cavell in the cabinet at home, so I seem always to have been aware of her. Dad , serving in both world wars, was devoted to her memory.

I can remember when I was a child(I was about 8yrs old) there was a big photograph on the classroom wall of a nurse . I used to stare at this photograph and wonder about her.Underneath the photograph was t he title Nurse Edith Cavell . Heroine.
One day I asked my teacher who the nurse was and she told me it was Edith Cavell who was a very brave lady.
But she never said what she had done that was so brave.That was a lost opportunity !
As I was interested in history even then,I eventually found out about her bravery. Years later I to became a nurse and would wonder would I have been as brave as she was.

no one saw this yesterday but we need reminding of the bravery of this lady.

90 years ago today, Edith Cavell was executed by a German firing squad. She was so brave and did so much to help our servicemen then, she probably hoped things would never be as bad again, but still nations fight and brave men and women lose their lives or have injuries that change their lives forever.




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Norwich remembers Edith Cavell
Emma Knights
Sunday, 10 October, 2010


She is a Norfolk heroine who sacrificed herself to help Allied soldiers to safety during the first world war.


And at a special service at Norwich Cathedral on Saturday the bravery and selflessness of Edith Cavell was remembered.

Organised by the Norfolk and Norwich Combined Ex-Services Association, the poignant remembrance service was held around Edith’s grave nearly 95 years to the day that she was executed by a German firing squad on October 12 1915.

When the first world war broke out Edith had been head matron of Belgium’s first nurse training school and the school went on to become a safe house for Allied troops. Before being discovered by the Germans, Edith had helped some 200 soldiers escape from occupied Belgium to safety.

On Saturday morning, scores of people turned out to pay their respects to the heroic nurse who was born in Swardeston in 1865.

The Band of the Salvation Army from Mile Cross and standard bearers from military associations across the county marched to her graveside for the start of the service in which the Rev Paul Burr, vicar of Swardeston, addressed the congregation and wreaths were laid on Edith’s grave.

Pascal Gregoire, first secretary of the Embassy of Belgium in London, travelled to Norwich especially for the service.

He said: “We make a point to participate in the service every year because we think it is important to show that we still remember Edith Cavell, that she gave her life in Belgium for British soldiers and she helped to build the first nursing school in Brussels. She is well remembered in Belgium.”

Stuart Holmes, a Deputy Lord Lieutenant for Norfolk, said it was a very moving ceremony.

He said: “It is so important that we remember Edith Cavell for her display of courage in the face of adversity and her sense of duty even knowing what the consequences could be.”

Derek James, Sheriff of Norwich, who attended the memorial with his wife Bridgette, added: “Edith Cavell’s death seems more poignant than ever with recent events, and the service was also an opportunity to remember men and women in the armed forces today.”

Bill McLintock, from the Ex-Services Association and who organised the event, said he was very pleased with the amount of people who came to the service.

“For me this service is so important because Edith Cavell did something for Britain to be proud of by looking after the servicemen and trying to help them in any way she could,” he said.

Major Charles Colbeck, from the Swanton Morley-based Light Dragoons, and Colin Kemp, chairman of the Norfolk branch of the Royal British Legion, were among the other people to attend the service.