Editing Edith Cavell (section)

==Early life and career==
[[File:Nurse Edith Cavell 1865-1915 Q32930.jpg|right|thumbnail|Cavell in a garden in Brussels with her two dogs before the outbreak of war]]
[[File:Nurse Edith Cavell 1865-1915; Brussels Q70204.jpg|thumb|Cavell (seated centre) with a group of multinational student nurses whom she trained in Brussels]]
Cavell was born on 4 December 1865{{sfn|Unger|1997}} in [[Swardeston]], a village near [[Norwich]], where her father Frederick Cavell was vicar for 45 years.{{sfn|Hoehling|1957}} She was the eldest of the four children of the Reverend Frederick Cavell (1824–1910) and his wife Louisa Sophia Warming (1835–1918). Edith's siblings were Florence Mary (1867-1950), Mary Lilian (1870-1967) and John Frederick Scott (1872–1923).{{sfn|Unger|1997}}

Cavell was educated at [[Norwich High School for Girls]], then at boarding schools in [[Clevedon]], Somerset, and [[Peterborough]] (Laurel Court).{{sfn|Grant|1995|pp=5–6}}

After a period as a governess, including for a family in [[Brussels]] from 1890 to 1895, Cavell returned home to care for her father during a serious illness. The experience led her to become a nurse after her father's recovery.{{sfn|Daunton|1990|p=1}}  Cavell worked as a nurse at the Fountain [[Fever hospital|Fever Hospital]] in [[Tooting]] from December 1895.<ref name=":1">Edith Cavell, reference from the Matron, Fountain Hospital Tooting, 26 April 1896; Matron’s Correspondence and Papers; RLHLH/N/7/7/29; Barts Health NHS Trust Archives and Museums, London</ref> At the age of 30, Cavell applied to become a nurse probationer at the [[Royal London Hospital|London Hospital]]{{sfn|Grant|1995|pp=5–6}}<ref name=":1" /> and commenced as a regular probationer at the London Hospital in September 1896 under Matron [[Eva Luckes]].<ref name=":2">Edith Cavell, Register of Probationers; RLHLH/N/1/5, 147; Barts Health NHS Trust Archives and Museums, London</ref><ref name=":3">Rogers, Sarah (2022). 'A Maker of Matrons’? A study of Eva Lückes’s influence on a generation of nurse leaders:1880–1919' (Unpublished PhD thesis, University of Huddersfield, April 2022)</ref> Cavell was seconded to work with other London Hospital nurses in the [[Maidstone]] [[Typhoid fever|typhoid]] [[epidemic]], from 15 October 1897 until early January 1898, while still a probationer.<ref name=":4">Sarah Rogers, ‘The Nurses of the 1897 Maidstone Typhoid Epidemic: Social Class and Training. How representative were they of mid-nineteenth century nursing reforms?’ (Unpublished Master of Letters dissertation, Dundee, March 2016)</ref><ref name=":2" /> Along with other staff, she was awarded the Maidstone Typhoid Medal.{{sfn|Gazet|2015}}<ref name=":4" />  After her training, Cavell worked from October 1898 to December 1899 as a private nurse employed by the Private Nursing Institution of the London Hospital, treating patients in their homes.<ref>Edith Louisa Cavell, Private Nursing Institution Register, June 1898 – May 1899; RLHLH/N/5/4, 89–90; Barts Health NHS Trust Archives and Museums, London</ref> Cavell travelled to tend patients with cancer, gout, pneumonia, pleurisy, eye issues and appendicitis.{{sfn|Daunton|1990|p=1}} In 1901, Luckes recommended Cavell for the position of night superintendent of [[Highgate Hospital|St Pancras Infirmary]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Anonymous |date=14 November 1903 |title='Appointments' |journal=[[The Hospital, Nursing Section]] |volume=35 |issue=894 |pages=96}}</ref><ref>Edith Scott Cavell, Register of Sisters and Nurses; RLHLH/N/4/1, 227; Barts Health NHS Trust Archives and Museums, London</ref> In November 1903, she became assistant [[matron]] of [[St Leonard's Hospital, Hackney|St Leonard's Infirmary]] in [[Shoreditch]].{{sfn|Grant|1995|p=8}}<ref name=":3" /><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Anonymous |date=21 November 1903 |title='Appointments' |journal=The British Journal of Nursing |volume=38 |pages=406}}</ref>

In 1906, Cavell took a temporary post as matron of the Manchester and Salford Sick and Poor and Private Nursing Institution, working there for about nine months.