EXPLAINED: Edith Cavell the global war hero who gave her name to Highland War Memorial site
Register for free to read more of the latest local news. It's easy and will only take a moment.
Inverness's War Memorial to our fallen heroes stands on a beautiful riverside location known as Cavell Gardens where this weekend they will feature again as Armistice Day is remembered.
But many may not known that the gardens are named after an English nurse Edith Cavell who herself became a worldwide hero of World War I.
What is her link to the local area?
She had absolutely no direct connection to the Highland capital at all.
So why is she honoured here?
Cavell has no connection either with the many countries worldwide that have remembered the dignified bravery of this remarkable woman, and there is even a mountain in Canada named in her memory.
Why did this woman inspire so much love and admiration?
After a meteoric nursing career in which she was ahead of her time in many respects, she was appointed as matron in charge of a training hospital in Belgium.
When World War I broke out she tending wounded Allied and German soldiers alike.
OK, but so did many nurses...
But Cavell also bravely defied the German invaders and with the Belgian underground resistance movement, helped smuggle more than 200 British, French and Belgian soldiers into the Netherlands.
That must have been risky?!
Yes it was... and her heroism led to her being shot at dawn by a German firing squad while still wearing her nursing uniform. She was 49 when executed on October 12, 1915.
How was she caught?
In August 1915, a Belgian spy discovered the secret tunnel used to smuggle out Allied soldiers and reported it to the authorities. Cavell was arrested and when interrogated by German officials, she confessed.
You may also be interested in: 'Why I wear a white poppy'
Dingwall Remembrance parade details shared
WATCH: Dingwall roofer's poppy inspired creation revealed
What was she accused of doing by the German occupiers?
Cavell was convicted of treason under German military rule and she admitted knowing the soldiers she helped would be able to resume fighting against their enemies.
Her "trial" or court martial was said to have lasted only four minutes.
What was done to help her?
While the First Geneva Convention usually guaranteed protection of medical personnel, such protection was forfeit if medical practices were used as cover for belligerent action 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."
She was sentenced to death by firing squad despite appeals from then neutral United States, as well as Spain and the Vatican.
She made three depositions to the German police, 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.
How did she take her imminent death?
With tremendous bravery. A new memorial at Inverness War Memorial erected in 2015 marking the centenary of her execution carries her final words: "This I would say, 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.”
She was taken from the St Gilles Prison to a firing range in the Schaerbeek, Brussels, and was shot.
Any other repercussions?
Cavell's execution was a propaganda disaster for Germany after she was hailed as a martyr.
She became a symbol of the Allied cause, and her memory was invoked in recruitment posters in Britain and around the world. In two months after her execution, recruitment to the British army doubled.
Belgium's King Albert I said: “Brussels will be haunted for ever by the ghost of this noble woman, shamefully murdered.”
What other memorials are in her name?
Most famous is probably her statue in St Martin’s Place, next to Trafalgar Square. It is engraved with four words which describe the qualities for which this remarkable woman is best remembered: Humanity, Fortitude, Devotion and Sacrifice.
An impressive 3300m peak, Mount Edith Cavell in Jasper National park, Canada is named in her memory.
What brought her to war-torn Belgium?
Cavell worked as a governess in Belgium, but after nursing her father, decided nursing was her forte.
She trained and worked in hospitals in London and Manchester, but in 1907, she was asked to return to Belgium to help look after a sick child, under the care of Dr Antoine Depage.
He opened Belgium’s first nurse training school and put Cavell in charge. After just one year, she was training and providing nurses to three hospitals, 24 schools and 13 nurseries.
Her pioneering work led her to be considered the founder of modern nursing education in Belgium.
In 1914 when World War I broke out, she returned to Brussels where her hospital had been converted to a Red Cross facility to care for war wounded.
She encouraged her nurses to treat any soldiers regardless of which side they were fighting on.
Was there outcry at her arrest?
Many people felt she should be treated with mercy, given that she had done so much to look after both Allied and German soldiers... but to no avail.
After Cavell's death?
Her name lived on and newspapers wrote about her death and how heroic she was. The government also used her execution as propaganda to make people think of the German forces as brutal and cruel, and to encourage men to join the war and fight against them.
Many believe that this was far from what Edith would have wanted. To this day, people are amazed by the incredible dignity with which Edith met her death.
She accepted her sentence, describing it as “just”, and even showed complete forgiveness towards her executioners.
What happened to her body?
After initial burial on the rifle range where she was shot, Cavell’s remains were brought back to Britain in 1919 on board a destroyer.
Her body lay in state in a railway van at Dover and later she was given a state funeral and a memorial service in Westminster Abbey attended by King George V and thousands of people lined the city’s streets to pay their respects.
She was then reburied in the grounds of Norwich Cathedral near her family hometown of Swardeston.
In France and Belgium, Edith became a popular name for girls, including the renowned singer Edith Piaf, born just two months after the execution.
How is Edith Cavell remembered?
An important figure in European history, Edith Cavell is recognised as a pioneer of modern nursing in Belgium. She is remembered for saving the lives of many soldiers during World War I, regardless of which side they were fighting for.
What’s more, she put the safety of others before her own, and accepted her fate with incredible dignity.
The Inverness War Memorial was unveiled by clan chief the Mackintosh of Mackintosh in December 1922 in front of a crowd of 5000.
Cavell Gardens had been recently named in memory of Edith Cavell and made use of a gap site at the east end of the Infirmary Bridge, but it is unclear who chose her name for the gardens, though most likely it was Inverness Town Council.
