I recently read a biography on Edith Cavell, a Red Cross nurse who was executed by the Germans in October, 1915. She had been born near Norwich, England to an English vicar. Raised with a strong sense of duty, she had opportunity to study early in her life in Brussels and after her father died she decided to train and dedicate her life to nursing.

Cavell worked as a nurse at five different places in England as she continued to hone her skills. Where she excelled was in her administrative and teaching abilities. She thrilled to teach others her trade and developed models that were somewhat unique to the times. When the opportunity came for her to go to Brussels to help lay the foundation for modern medicine she leaped at the chance. Beginning with very few tools she developed a teaching method that over time began to train others. Her competency levels so excelled in Brussels that even the queen asked her personally to oversee the healing process of her broken arm.

When the war broke out in 1914 Cavell was back in England tending her aged mother and her flower garden. The German army quickly moved towards Brussels and even though England was now at war with Germany, there was no hesitation in what she should do. Her duty was to the Red Cross and the health care needed in Brussels. Because she offered a special skill set she was allowed to continue giving oversight to the nursing profession, even though now under German occupation. She tended those who needed her care with the same diligence, whether German soldiers or captured English and French soldiers. But she was also aware of the Germany policy of indiscriminately murdering captured soldiers, even those under her care. Collaborating with a select few of like-minded persons, they set up an underground railway that would help the captured soldiers (over 200) to escape back to England or France. She even received letters from returned soldiers thanking her for her help. But this did not go unnoticed by the German authorities and with a Judas kiss she was betrayed and arrested as a traitor.

Being interrogated by the German officers she never needed to be coerced or tortured. She admitted that it was as they said. She had helped these soldiers to escape. Her rationale was her driving principle for her life, to save and preserve life and not to destroy life. Though the American and Spanish emissaries sought to save her , she was tried and sentenced to death by a military tribunal. The sentence was to be carried out that night, giving no opportunity for appeals.

Her last visitor was an Anglican clergyman. She stated that she was not afraid of death. She had done her duty and knew what awaited her future. But her last words to him have become a watchword for many: “When patriotism is not enough.” When the guiding principles of our lives are in conflict with a corrupt system of government or with those who would seek to destroy or devalue the worth of others, we must to ourselves and those guiding principles be true. It is not enough to live only with a sense of angst. Light cannot be hidden under a bushel or salt trampled underfoot. As she wrote to a friend, “Nothing matters when one comes to the last hour but a clear conscience”. She lived as she believed and paid the ultimate price for her integrity.

Cavell was taken out of the prison in the middle of the night, driven two miles and then executed. All of England, especially those within the nursing profession grieved the loss of one of their own as countless numbers of nurses attended the memorials to Cavell, wearing the uniform of the nursing profession that she so cherished.

Let us honour those nurses who tend and care for all under their charge, regardless of creed, gender or nationality. Their sense of duty and professionalism not only brings credit to the likes of Nightingale or Cavell, but to all who labour in the fields of medicine and health.