War, Gender and National Mourning: The Significance of the Death and Commemoration of Edith Cavell in Britain

Abstract

This article takes as a case study Edith Cavell, arguably the most prominent British female war casualty of the First World War. It builds on the existing work on Cavell by situating her commemoration within the context of the commemoration of British war casualties, both male and female, with particular reference to the commemoration of Captain Charles Fryatt, the British merchant seaman executed by the Germans in Belgium in 1916 whose death initially caused an outcry in Britain similar to that caused by the execution of Cavell.

résumé  Cet article se penche sur le cas d'Edith Cavell, la victime britannique la plus célèbre de la première guerre mondiale, pour contextualiser son historiographie dans le contexte de la commémoration des victimes de guerre et en la comparant au cas du capitaine Charles Fryatt, de la marine marchande, exécuté en Belgique en 1916.

Notes

 [1] Winter, Sites of Memory. Winter & Sivan eds. War and Remembrance .

 [2] Bourke, Dismembering the Male.

 [3] Damousi and Lake. Gender and War.

 [4] Hoehling, Edith Cavell, 2–22.

 [5] Of the 25 books and articles drawn upon by A. A. Hoehling in his 1958 work on Cavell, 17 were published by the end of 1919.

 [6] Clark-Kennedy, Edith Cavell , 15.

 [7] White, Edith Cavell .

 [8] Walker, “Nurses in war: Edith Cavell: WWI Nurse, Hero, Martyr,” 38–40.

 [9] Darrow, French Women.

[10] Speck, “Edith Cavell: martyr or Patriot,” 83–98.

[11] Ryder, Edith Cavell , 227.

[12] Clark-Kennedy, Edith Cavell, 159–161.

[13] Ryder, Edith Cavell, 209–210.

[14] Speck, “Edith Cavell: Martyr or Patriot,” 83. A recruiting poster produced by Essex County recruiters.

[15] Speck, “Edith Cavell: Martyr or Patriot,”, 83–98.

[16] The Times, “The martyrdom of Miss Cavell” (London), 25 October 1915; 9. Cited in Speck, “Edith Cavell: Martyr or Patriot,” 88.

[17] Ryder, Edith Cavell, 229.

[18] Speck, “Edith Cavell: Martyr or Patriot,” 87–88.

[19] PRO WO32/4841, in particular WO32/4841/6B letter from Lord Derby to Rudyard Kipling, 4 December 1917.

[20] Leeds, Edith Cavell , 9.

[21] Hill, Martyrdom of Nurse Cavell.

[22] Hoehling, Edith Cavell , 27.

[23] Available at: http://www.mkheritage.co.uk/la/Doc/Chaplain.html (accessed 7 March 2004). This website includes the text of a letter from a Church of England Chaplain, M.A.O. Mayne, with the 122nd Infantry Brigade, BEF, to Mr French to tell him about the death of his son, and quotes this passage from the Bible, John, 15:13.

[24] Available at: http://www.rsa.org.uk/fourthplinth/history.html (accessed 14 July 2004).

[25] Pickles, Female Imperialism , 47.

[26] PRO HO45/10794. Letter and press cuttings sent by Miss Heather Grey of South Africa to Mrs Cavell c/o the Under Secretary of State, the Home Office, 29 October 1917.

[27] Greg Hilty, “Trafalgar Square may soon be more than a place for pigeons and dead generals,” Guardian, 18 December, 2000. Available at: http://www.guardian.co.uk (accessed 23 March 2004).

[28] Hoehling, Edith Cavell , 95.

[29] Ryder, Edith Cavell, 198.

[30] Darrow, French Women, 276.

[31] Hoehling, Edith Cavell, 128.

[32] Hoehling, Edith Cavell, 95.

[33] Darrow, French Women, 133–168. She discusses this in relation to the situation for nurses in France during the Great War.

[34] Ryder, Edith Cavell, 227.

[35] Ryder, Edith Cavell, 227.

[36] Discussion with a Belgian delegate on this point at the University of Manchester's conference War, Atrocity and Humanity: From Ancient to Modern Times, 15–17 April 2004, revealed that this weak image of Cavell as a naïve English spinster who betrayed her comrades is one which prevails in Belgian narratives on the Belgian resistance in the Great War.

[37] Clark-Kennedy, Edith Cavell, 161.

[38] Ryder, Edith Cavell, 222.

[39] Ryder, Edith Cavell, 183.

[40] Clark-Kennedy, Edith Cavell, 161.

[41] Daily News & Leader “The Death of Edith Cavell.” London & Manchester: Daily News & Leader , 1915: 1.

[42] An interpretation that developed in discussion with Penny Summerfield on 8 July 2004.

[43] Available at: http://www.norfolk.gov.uk/leisure/archives//nrocvll.htm (accessed 8 March 2004).

[44] Darrow, French Women , 268–269.

[45] Darrow, French Women , 276–294.

[46] Darrow, French Women , 270.

[47] Ryder, Edith Cavell, 32–33.

[48] Ryder, Edith Cavell, 150.

[49] The protests occurred in The Times, “Nurse Cavell: To the Editor of The Times,” 5 March 1928: 15. Letter from H. Stirling T. Gahan to the Editor of The Times, and The Times, “Nurse Cavell: D. Paul Le Seur,” 13 March 1928: 17. Letter from Pastor Le Seur to the Editor of The Times.

[50] Clark-Kennedy, Edith Cavell quoted in Marlow, Women and the Great War, 138–139.

[51] E. Sylvia Pankhurst quoted in Marlow, Women and the Great War, 139.

[52] The Times, “Edith Cavell Memorial,”17 March 1920: 10.

[53] Clark-Kennedy, Edith Cavell, 221.

[54] Shaw, Saint Joan , xliii–xliv.

[55] The Times, 20 October 1923: 7.

[56] Ryder, Edith Cavell, 237.

[57] Ryder, Edith Cavell, 239.

[58] Ryder, Edith Cavell, 150–159.

[59] PRO KV2/822 M.O.5(G) I.P.No.25535, letter reg. No. 52141/M.O.5/G dated 16 October 1915 from Major R. Drake to M.O.5 (Colonel).

[60] Speck, “Edith Cavell: Martyr or Patriot,” 85–86.

[61] Available at: http://www.tower-of-london.com/prisoners/spies.html (accessed 7 March 2004).

[62] Speck, “Edith Cavell: Martyr or Patriot,” 85.

[63] Speck, “Edith Cavell: Martyr or Patriot,” 85

[64] PRO KV2/822 M.O.5(G) I.P.No.25535, letter reg. No. 52141/M.O.5/G dated 16 October 1915 from Major R. Drake to M.O.5 (Colonel).

[65] PRO KV2/822 M.O.5(G) I.P.No.25535, letter reg. no. 52238 dated 16 October 1915 from H. Lyon, War Office, to Lt.-Colonel V. G. W. Kell.

[66] PRO KV2/822 M.O.5(G) I.P.No.25535, letter reg. No. 52141/M.O.5/G dated 16 October 1915 from Major R. Drake to M.O.5 (Colonel).

[67] The Times, 20 November 1915: 11.

[68] F. Tuohy, The Secret Corps, A Tale of ‘Intelligence’ on all Fronts, (London, Murray, 1920) cited in Speck, “Edith Cavell: Martyr or Patriot,” 85.

[69] Julie Wheelwright, The Fatal Lover: Mata Hari and the Myth of Women in Espionage (London, Juliet Gardiner and Collins & Brown, 1992): 125 cited in Speck, “Edith Cavell: Martyr or Patriot,” 86.

[70] PRO H.045/10794/302.577 file, “Transfer to UK for burial of remains of persons who have died abroad. Nurse Cavell,” dated 11 April 1919. 302.577/3 “Proposal of National ‘Cavell Day’ to assist recruiting” from Mr William Hill, Representative of the National Liberal Club dated 19 November 1915.

[71] The Times, 12 November 1915: 11.

[72] Speck, “Edith Cavell: Martyr or Patriot,” 88.

[73] The Times, “In Memory of Miss Cavell,” 30 October 1915: 10.

[74] PRO H.045/10794/302.577 file, “Transfer to UK for burial of remains of persons who have died abroad. Nurse Cavell,” dated 11 April 1919. 302.577/3. Response to Mr William Hill, Representative of the National Liberal Club from the Secretary of State dated 24 November 1915 and sent on 1 December 1915.

[75] PRO H.045/10794/302.577 file, “Transfer to UK for burial of remains of persons who have died abroad. Nurse Cavell,” dated 11 April 1919.

[76] Thomson Hill, The Martyrdom of Nurse Cavell, London: Hutchinson & Co., 1915: 2.

[77] Protheroe, A Noble Woman, London: Charles H. Kelly, January 1918 (1st ed. January 1916): 71.

[78] PRO H.045/10794/302.577 file, “Transfer to UK for burial of remains of persons who have died abroad. Nurse Cavell,” dated 11 April 1919. 302.577 Letter from the Under-Secretary of State dated 22 February 1919.

[79] PRO H.045/10794/302.577 file, “Transfer to UK for burial of remains of persons who have died abroad. Nurse Cavell,” dated 11 April 1919. 302.577/6 cutting from The Daily Chronicle 10 April 1919.

[80] PRO H.045/10794/302.577 file, “Transfer to UK for burial of remains of persons who have died abroad. Nurse Cavell,” dated 11 April 1919. 302.577/6 cutting from The Daily Chronicle 10 April 1919.

[81] Ryder, Edith Cavell , 229.

[82] British Library 10825.g.25. Printed invitation card, The Unveiling of the Cavell Memorial in St Martin's Place, Westminster. Wednesday 17 March 1920 at noon.

[83] Peter Clowes, ‘Nurse Edith Cavell’, Military History Magazine, August 1996. Available at: http://womenshistory.about.com/library/prm/bledithcavell3.htm (accessed 7 March 2004).

[84] Accounts of nurses’ funerals can be found in a number of works including Alice McKinnon's experiences quoted in Van Emden, Richard, & Steve Humphries, eds. Veterans: The Last Survivors of the Great War. Barnsley: Leo Cooper, 1998:21, in Marlow, Women and the Great War, 82 and 150–151.

[85] Available at: http://www.norfolk.gov.uk/leisure/archives//nrocvll.htm (accessed 8 March 2004).

[86] The Times, 6 August 1927: 2.

[87] Available at: http://www.norfolk.gov.uk/leisure/archives//nrocvll.htm (accessed 8 March 2004).

[88] PRO HLG45/1479 Reg. No. 91202/4/157, Ministry of Housing and Local Government, BUR46/8/11. Letter from Sir Ronald B. Keefe, Chapter Clerk of the Dean and Chapter of Norwich Cathedral to the Secretary of the Home Office Re: Grave of Nurse Edith Cavell, Life's Green, The Cathedral Close, Norwich dated 10 October 1963.

[89] PRO HLG 45/1479 Reg. No. 91202/41157, Ministry of Housing and Local Government, Bur 46/8/11. Letter from J. R. Layton, Ministry of Housing and Local Government to Miss L. Noble, Home Office, 28 January 1964.

[90] PRO HLG 45/1479 Reg. No. 91202/41157, Ministry of Housing and Local Government, Bur 46/8/11. Letter from Miss L Noble, Home Office, to Sir Ronald B. Keefe, Chapter Clerk of the Dean and Chapter of Norwich Cathedral, 6 February 1964.

[91] Available at: http://www.edithcavell.org.uk/ (accessed 24 August 2003).

[92] Available at: http://www.aftermathww1.com/cavellfind.asp quoting an article “War angel's tribute saved from flames” from the Manchester Evening News, 24 April 2002 (accessed 8 September 2003).

[93] Ryder, Edith Cavell, 77.

[94] Ryder, Edith Cavell, 227.

[95] Ryder, Edith Cavell, 221.

[96] Available at: http://www.npg.org.uk/live/search/portrait.asp?LinkID = mp05141&rNo = 0&role = sit; http://www.npg.org.uk/live/search/portrait.asp?LinkID = mp05141&role = 0&role = sit&rNo = 1; http://www.npg.org.uk/live/search/portrait.asp?LinkID = mp05141&role = 0&role = sit&rNo = 2 (all accessed 4 July 2004).

[97] An Internet search carried out on 4 July 2004 revealed the following figures using the search terms “Edith Cavell” and “Charles Fryatt”: www.google.co.uk listed 20,900 sites for “Edith Cavell” and 56 for “Charles Fryatt”, www.ask.co.uk listed approximately 3300 for “Edith Cavell” and only approximately 45 for Charles Fryatt” (it is unclear why the latter site gives an approximate number).

[98] Available at: http://collections.iwm.org.uk/server/show/ConWebDon.935 (accessed 4 July 2004).

[99] Boston, Dutiful Edith Cavell .