Editing Edith Cavell (section)

==Assistance to Allied soldiers==
[[File:Costa Rica, florence nighting Gale & Edith Cavell, 1945 issue.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|[[Florence Nightingale]] and Cavell on a postage stamp marking 60 years of the Costa Rican Red Cross]]
In November 1914, after the [[German occupation of Belgium during World War I|German occupation of Brussels]], Cavell began sheltering British soldiers and funnelling them out of occupied Belgium to the neutral [[Netherlands in WWI|Netherlands]]. Wounded British and French soldiers as well as Belgian and French civilians of military age were hidden from the Germans and provided with false papers by Prince Réginald [[House of Croÿ|de Croÿ]] at his château of [[Bellignies]] near Mons. From there, they were conducted by various guides to the houses of Cavell, Louis Séverin, and others in Brussels, where their hosts would furnish them with money to reach the Dutch frontier, and provide them with guides obtained through Philippe Baucq.{{sfn|Encyclopædia Britannica|1922}} This placed Cavell in violation of [[German military law]].{{sfn|Hoehling|1957}}{{sfn|Scovil|1915}} German authorities became increasingly suspicious of the nurse's actions, which were further fuelled by her outspokenness.{{sfn|Hoehling|1957}}

===Arrest and trial===
Cavell was arrested on 3 August 1915 and charged with harbouring Allied soldiers. She had been betrayed by Georges Gaston Quien, who was later convicted by a French court as a collaborator.{{sfn|The Mount Washington News|1934}}{{sfn|Palm Beach Daily News|1936}} Cavell was held in [[Saint-Gilles prison]] for ten weeks, the last two of which were spent in solitary confinement.{{sfn|Hoehling|1957}} She made three depositions to the German police (on 8, 18 and 22 August), admitting that she had been instrumental in conveying about 60 British and 15 French soldiers, as well as about 100 French and Belgian civilians of military age, to the frontier and had sheltered most of them in her house.{{sfn|Encyclopædia Britannica|1922}}

At her [[court-martial]], Cavell was prosecuted for aiding British and French soldiers, and young Belgian men, to cross the Dutch border and eventually enter Britain. She admitted her guilt when she signed a statement the day before the trial. Cavell declared that the soldiers she had helped escape thanked her in writing when they arrived safely in Britain. This admission confirmed that Cavell had not only helped the soldiers navigate the Dutch frontier, but it also established that she helped them escape to a country at war with Germany.{{sfn|Duffy|2009}} Her fellow defendants included Prince Reginald's sister, [[Princess Marie of Croÿ]].

The penalty, according to German military law, was death. Paragraph 58 of the German Military Code determined that "In time of war, anyone who, with the intention of aiding a hostile power, or of causing harm to German or allied troops", commits any of the crimes defined in paragraph 90 of the German Penal Code "shall be punished with death for war treason". Specifically, Cavell was charged under paragraph 90 (1) no. 3 ''Reichsstrafgesetzbuch'', for "conveying troops to the enemy", a crime normally punishable by life imprisonment in peacetime.{{sfn|Duffy|2009}} It was possible to charge Cavell with [[perfidy]], or war treason ({{langx|de|Kriegsverrat}}), as paragraph 160 of the German Military Code extended application of paragraph 58 to foreigners "present in the zone of war".

[[File:C. 1916 Edith Cavell propaganda stamp.JPG|thumbnail|right|A [[cinderella stamp|propaganda stamp]] issued shortly after Cavell's death]]
While the [[First Geneva Convention]] ordinarily guaranteed protection of medical personnel, such protection was forfeit if medical practices were seen to be used as cover for belligerent action. This forfeiture is expressed in article 7 of the 1906 version of the convention, which was the version in force at the time,{{sfn|Bevans|1968|p=972}} and justified prosecution under German military law.

The British government could therefore do nothing to help her. Sir Horace Rowland of the [[Foreign Office]] said, "I am afraid that it is likely to go hard with Miss Cavell; I am afraid we are powerless."{{sfn|Norton-Taylor|2005}} [[Robert Cecil, 1st Viscount Cecil of Chelwood|Lord Robert Cecil]], Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs, advised that, "Any representation by us will do her more harm than good."{{sfn|Norton-Taylor|2005}} The [[United States]], however, had not yet joined the war and was in a position to apply diplomatic pressure. [[Hugh S. Gibson]], Secretary to the U.S. Legation at Brussels, made clear to the German government that executing Cavell would further harm Germany's already damaged reputation. Later, he wrote:{{sfn|Gibson|1917}}

{{blockquote|We reminded [German civil governor Baron von der Lancken] of the [[Sack of Louvain|burning of Louvain]] and the sinking of the ''[[RMS Lusitania|Lusitania]]'', and told him that this murder would rank with those two affairs and would stir all civilized countries with horror and disgust. Count Harrach broke in at this with the rather irrelevant remark that he would rather see Miss Cavell shot than have harm come to the humblest German soldier, and his only regret was that they had not "three or four old English women to shoot."}}

Baron von der Lancken is known to have stated that Cavell should be pardoned because of her complete honesty and because she had helped save so many lives, German as well as Allied. However, [[Traugott von Sauberzweig|General von Sauberzweig]], the military governor of Brussels, ordered that "in the interests of the State" the implementation of the death penalty against Baucq and Cavell should be immediate,{{sfn|Encyclopædia Britannica|1922}} denying higher authorities an opportunity to consider clemency.{{sfn|Scovil|1915}}{{sfn|Hughes|2005}} Cavell was represented by defence lawyer Sadi Kirschen from Brussels. Of the twenty-seven defendants, five were condemned to death: Cavell, Baucq (an architect in his thirties), [[Louise Thuliez]], Séverin and Countess Jeanne de Belleville. Of the five sentenced to death, only Cavell and Baucq were executed; the other three were granted reprieves.{{sfn|Encyclopædia Britannica|1922}}

Cavell was arrested not for espionage, as many were led to believe, but for "war treason", despite not being a German national.{{sfn|Hoehling|1957}} She may have been recruited by the British [[Secret Intelligence Service]] (SIS), and turned away from her espionage duties in order to help Allied soldiers escape, although this is not widely accepted.{{sfn|Rankin|2008|p=36–37}} Rankin cites the published statement of [[M. R. D. Foot]], historian and Second World War British intelligence officer, as to Cavell having been part of SIS or MI6.{{sfn|Watson|2014|}} The former director-general of MI5, [[Stella Rimington]], announced in 2015 that she had unearthed documents in Belgian military archives that confirmed an intelligence-gathering aspect to Cavell's network. The [[BBC Radio 4]] programme that presented Rimington's quote, noted Cavell's use of secret codes and, though amateurish, other network members' successful transmission of intelligence.{{sfn|Singh|2015}}

When in custody, Cavell was questioned in French, but her trial was minuted in German; which some assert gave the prosecutor the opportunity to misinterpret her answers. Although she may have been misrepresented, she made no attempt to defend herself, but responded to have channelled "''environ deux cents''" ("about two hundred") soldiers to the Dutch border. Cavell was provided with a defender approved by the German military governor; a previous defender, who was chosen for Cavell by her assistant, Elizabeth Wilkins,{{sfn|Hoehling|1957}} was ultimately rejected by the governor.{{sfn|Hughes|2005}}

[[File:Bellows, George Wesley, The Murder of Edith Cavell, 1918.jpg|thumb|[[George Bellows]], ''The Murder of Edith Cavell'', 1918, [[Princeton University Art Museum]]]]

===Execution===
The night before her execution, Cavell told the Reverend H. Stirling Gahan, the Anglican chaplain of Christ Church Brussels, who had been allowed to see her and to give her [[Holy Communion]], "I am thankful to have had these ten weeks of quiet to get ready. Now I have had them and have been kindly treated here. I expected my sentence and I believe it was just. Standing as I do in view of God and Eternity, I realise that patriotism is not enough, I must have no hatred or bitterness towards anyone."{{sfn|Gahan|1925|pp=288–89}}{{sfn|Gahan|1923}} These words are inscribed on her statues in London and in Melbourne, Australia.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.londonremembers.com/memorials/edith-cavell-statue|title = Edith Cavell statue}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2021-09-15 |title=Nurse Edith Cavell Memorial |url=https://citycollection.melbourne.vic.gov.au/nurse-edith-cavell-memorial/ |access-date=2023-04-12 |website=City Collection |language=en-US}}</ref>  Cavell's final words to the German [[Lutheran]] prison chaplain, Paul Le Seur, were recorded as, "Ask Father Gahan to tell my loved ones later on that my soul, as I believe, is safe, and that I am glad to die for my country."{{sfn|Peterson|2018}}

From his sick bed, [[Brand Whitlock]], the U.S. ambassador to Belgium, wrote a personal note on Cavell's behalf to [[Moritz von Bissing]], the Governor-General of Belgium. Hugh Gibson; Maitre G. de Leval, the legal adviser to the United States legation; and {{Ill|Rodrigo de Saavedra y Vinent|es}}, 2nd Marques de Villalobar, the Spanish minister, formed a midnight deputation of appeal for mercy or at least postponement of execution.{{sfn|Encyclopedia Americana|1920}} Despite these efforts, on 11 October, Baron von der Lancken allowed the execution to proceed.{{sfn|Scovil|1915}} Sixteen men, forming two firing squads, carried out the sentence pronounced on her and on four Belgian men at the [[Tir national]]{{sfn|Hoehling|1957}} shooting range in [[Schaerbeek]], at 7:00{{nbsp}}am on 12 October 1915. There are conflicting reports of the details of Cavell's execution. However, according to the eyewitness account of the Reverend Le Seur, who attended Cavell in her final hours, eight soldiers fired at Cavell while the other eight executed Baucq.{{sfn|Hoehling|1957}} Her execution, certification of death, and burial were witnessed by the German [[war poet]] [[Gottfried Benn]] in his capacity as a 'Senior Doctor in the Brussels Government since the first days of the (German) occupation'. Benn wrote a detailed account titled "Wie Miss Cavell erschossen wurde" (''How Miss Cavell was shot'', 1928).{{sfn|Benn|2013}}

There is also a dispute over the sentencing imposed under the German Military Code. Supposedly, the death penalty relevant to the offence committed by Cavell was not officially declared until a few hours after her death.{{sfn|Judson|1941}} The British post-war Committee of Enquiry into Breaches of the Laws of War however regarded the verdict as legally correct.{{sfn|Macdonell|1920|p=424}}

On instructions from the Spanish minister, Belgian women immediately buried Cavell's body next to Saint-Gilles Prison.{{sfn|Scovil|1915}} After the war, her body was taken back to Britain for a memorial service at [[Westminster Abbey]] and then transferred to [[Norwich Cathedral|Norwich]], to be laid to rest at Life's Green on the east side of the cathedral. The King had to grant an exception to an [[Order in Council]] of 1854, which prevented any burials in the grounds of the cathedral, to allow the reburial.<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=31332 |page=5787 |date=9 May 1919 }}</ref>