Papers of and relating to Edith Cavell (1865-1915), collected by the Institut Edith...

This collection consists of items donated to the Royal London Hospital Archives and Museum by the Institut Edith Cavell - Marie Depage and is divided into two accessions. The first donated in September 2000 by the government and the people of Belgium, consists of many items in Miss Cavell's own handwriting, including notes made whilst a probationer at the London Hospital, a draft lecture urging the women of Belgium to consider nursing as a career and the final letter she wrote to her nurses whilst imprisoned in St Gille, awaiting her execution. The second was donated via the British Embassy in Brussels in November 2003 and contains interesting items, such as training badges given to the nurses of the Ecole and memorabilia that was produced after Miss Cavell's execution.

<span class="wrapper"><p>LH/Z/1 Cavell - an artificial collection based around a collection built up by the London Hospital School of Nursing. It contains correspondence relating to Miss Cavell, press cuttings and newspaper articles about her and numerous memorabilia items.</p> <p>PP/CAV - a collection of artefacts and memorabilia collected by the London Hospital School of Nursing. This contains Miss Cavell's sketch book, a letter from her sister regarding Sir George Frampton's statue and artefacts associated with her execution.</p> <p>LH/N/7/7 - this contains letters from Miss Cavell to Eva Luckes, matron of the London Hospital, detailing the various events before and after her arrival in Brussels.</p> <p>LH/N/7/45-48 - these consist of correspondence with the matron of the London Hospital relating to Edith Cavell, such as the memorial services held, people requesting information on her and donating Cavell related items to the Hospital.</p></span>

Files CI/1/1-5, CI/2/1-2 CI/3/1-11 and CI/4/1-16 were donated by the Government and People of Belgium, September 2000.

Files CI/1/6-8 CI/2/3-5, CI/3/12-15 and CI/4/17-20 were donated via the Secretary to the Defence Attache, British Embassy, Brussels, November 2003

Edith Louise Cavell was born on 4 December 1865, the first child to the Rev. Frederick Cavell and his wife Louisa Sophia. The family lived in the village of Swardeston in Norfolk where the Rev. Cavell was vicar. Edith and her brother and sisters, Florence, Lillian and John (also called Jack), were educated at home by their father and mother. At the age of 14, Edith went away to school and it was during this period that she developed her skill of French. When she was 18 she became a governess to a family from Steeple Bumpstead in Essex. This was short lives, as she used a legacy left to her by a relative, to travel abroad. Her next post was as governess to the Francois family who lived in Brussels, where she stayed for six years.

In 1895, her father was suddenly taken ill and Edith returned home to nurse him. This fuelled her interest in nursing and in April 1895, she was working at the Foundations Fever Hospital in London. Edith then applied to the London Hospital for a place as a probationer nurse, and trained here between 1896 and 1898. In 1897, a typhoid epidemic broke out at Maidstone in Kent, and Edith Cavell was one of the nurses despatched to assist with the care of patients. Having passed her certificate, she was places on the private nursing staff. She then went on to hold the post of night sister at St Pancras Infirmary in 1901 and assistant matron at Shoreditch Infirmary from 1903. In 1906, she resigned her post at Shoreditch and went abroad with Evaline Dickenson, who she trained with at the London.

On her return she held a temporary post in charge of the Queen's District Nurses in Manchester. On the return of a permanent member of staff, Edith Cavell took another temporary post, nursing a child living in Brussels who was under the care of Dr Antoine Depage, a well known Belgian surgeon. At this time, nursing provision and education in Belgium was poor, with the majority of it being carried out by nuns. Dr Depage decided to set up a nursing school and, in 1907, asked Edith Cavell to become the first directress of the Ecole Beige d'Infirmieres Diplomees on the rue de la Culture in Brussles. At first, difficulties in recruiting nurses were encountered as nursing was not perceived as a profession suitable for ladies. In 1910, Miss Cavell was asked to become matron of the new hospital that was being constructed at St Gilles and to provide the staff. By 1912, the number of nursing recruits had grown so much, that it was decided to establish a new school, and a new building was begun in 1914 in the district of Uccle. The First World War also broke out at this time, and many of the nurses were sent home to their respective countries. Miss Cavell remained in Belgium. She was later asked to help two wounded, and fleeing, soldiers. This saw her entry into an escape organisation that was centred on the district of Mons. Over the next year, she helped to house, or out-house, fugitives and arrange their escapes. She was soon the focus of suspicion and on 5 August 1915, she was arrested. Miss Cavell was interrogated and on 10 August, was transferred to St Gille prison, where she was kept until her trial began. This lasted two days. On 11 October the death sentence was passed against her and others, with the order that she was to be executed immediately. At Dawn on 12 October 1915, Edith Cavell was executed by firing squad at the Tir National. After the war, her body was exhumed and returned to England where, after a memorial service at Westminster Abbey, she was buried at Norwich Cathedral.

The new nursing clinic was renamed Institut Edith Cavell - Marie Depage, the latter being the wife of Dr Antoine Depage. She was a tireless fundraiser for the Ecole and helped nurse the wounded at the front during the First World War. She was tragically killed when the Lusitania, on which she was returning from a fundraising mission in America, was torpedoed.