THE EDITH CAVELL NURSE BOULOGNE — THE SOMME 1916-1917 LIBRARY GIVEN BY V-jarr^Q^^Vc .^— ^«^^o>^C-^nf^^>c\ V- This book is due two weeks from the last date stamped below, and if not returned of^r^v^r^s^t^ at or before th^t time a fine of five cents a day will be incurred. 1 JVIAR 1 4 1929 i 1 ftoo 10 1S3' 1 ftPH ■*- " /Dec '4-' • EDITH CAVELL Shot by the Germans, October 12, 1915. THE EDITH CAVELL NURSE FROM MASSACHUSETTS A RECORD OF ONE YEAR'S PERSONAL SERVICE WITH THE BRITISH EXPEDITIONARY FORCE IN FRANCE BOULOGNE — THE SOMME 1916-1917 # WITH AN ACCOUNT OF THE IMPRISONMENT, TRIAL. AND DEATH OF EDITH CAVELL W. A. BUTTERFIELD 69 BROMFIELD ST. BOSTON SEP 2e I'^ip Copyright w. a. butterfield April 12, 1917 THE EDITH CAVELL NURSE FROM MASSACHUSETTS EDITH CAVELL'S story is of a sin- gular beauty. With solicitude for her enemy's women, the German pupil-nurses in her training school at Brus- sels, she protected them from possible un- kindness at the hands of the outraged Belgians, by herself taking them, at the beginning of the war, to the borders of their own land. And back at Brussels she nursed her enemy's wounded. "At her trial, she made no specious defence. With unclouded soul, she con- sented to her own death by giving the court the truth — that she had indeed helped her countrymen and the men of Belgium, her adopted home. For these friends she laid down her life. Is there greater love than this ? liii] THE EDITH CAVELL NURSE "After three weeks of solitary confine- ment, she said that she had found in prison kindness and peace of soul . For the enemy who first attempted to deceive our Ameri- can representative, and then set aside his touching prayer, and that of the Spanish ambassador, for even a brief delay — for this enemy she had no condemnation. *We must have,' she said, 'no hatred or bitterness.' ''As far as may be in her spirit, and be- lieving that her execution struck at the heart of Christianity and of chivalry — we, American citizens, have asked the English director of military surgery to accept, for the rest of the war, the services of the Edith Cavell Memorial Nurse from Massachu- setts. The offer, though unconditional, is made in the hope that it may be this nurse's high fortune to serve not only the Allies' heroic wounded but their prisoners." The foregoing statement, published one year ago, had its origin in a memorial ser- vice, in honor of Edith Cavell, held in Steinert Hall, Boston, December 11, 1915. [iv] FROM MASSACHUSETTS Professor George Herbert Palmer presided, and Mrs. Jessie D. Hodder, Fred B. Lund, M.D., and the Rev. Samuel McChord Crothers spoke. It was then decided that an ''Edith Cavell Nurse from Massachu- setts" should be offered to the English Government to serve, with the British Expeditionary force in France, for the duration of the war. The raising of the necessary funds and the far more difficult task of choosing a nurse whose spirit and capacity would fit her for her task, was entrusted to this committee. Money sufficient for salary and expenses for one year was promptly subscribed, and a nurse of exceptional attainments and personal distinction was discovered. Miss Alice L. F. Fitzgerald, the nurse in question, is fortunate in her previous experience. After graduating from the [V] THE EDITH CAVELL NURSE Johns Hopkins School, she superintended two training schools for nurses, became head of the operating room at the Bellevue Hospital, New York, and later worked with the Italian Red Cross for the Messina earthquake sufferers. For her devotion in that service she was decorated by the Italian Government. Miss Fitzgerald's services in memory of Edith Cavell were accepted by the British Government. She has just com- pleted her first year of work for the wounded, British, Colonial, and German, on the English front in France. William Roscoe Thayer Philip Cabot Rosalind Huidekoper Greene Henry Copley Greene William Ernest Hocking Edith Cavell Committee [vi] THE TREASURER'S REPORT Edith Cavell Fund January 17, 1916, to March 1, 1917 Dr. Cr. . 1916 1 Amount of Contributions . . $2400.00 Misa Alice L. F. Fitzgerald — Salary, 12 months $600.00 Expenses: steamship fare. uniforms, kit, board and lodging for 12 months 963.88 Mays 12 doz. Rubber Gloves $54.00 12 doz. Thermometers 72.00 Express Charges 10.65 136.65 53.48 Oct. 25 Gramophone and records Cash on hand March 1, 1917 645.99 $2400.00 $2400.00 The Committee wishes to express its appreciation of the interest shown by the Dana Hall School of Wellesley, which released Miss Fitzgerald from work in the school, and paid for her passage to Europe. The Committee wishes also to acknowledge the generosity of Mr. A. H. Atkins, the Boston sculptor, who contributed his skiU and talent in modelling the Edith Cavell medal which Miss Fitzgerald wears; and the kindness of the Gorham Manufacturing Co., which executed this medal in silver, free of charge. Funds are needed to carry this work through its second year. When you have read the first year's record of work by the Edith Cavell Nurse from Massachusetts, we are confident that, if you are already a subscriber, you will renew your subscrip- tion, and that if not, you will wish to send in your first donation. All gifts, whether large or small, will be welcomed : they should be sent to Philip Cabot, Treasurer, 111 Devonshire St., Boston, Mass. [viil PREFACE rpHE spirit in which Miss Fitzgerald -L is carrying out her mission, and something of what that spirit means to her wounded in France, may be inferred from the following record. These brief ex- tracts, from her letters to members of the Committee and to other friends in America and in France, tell us little of what she feels. Their unconsciousness makes them the more telling. It gives them, as we believe the reader will inevitably feel, a place heroic as it is humble, among the first-hand documents of the war. '/2^ ^ A 4- ice^i^^c /?^^:^5i^^ War Office, Whitehall. S.W, ^^^'C*.^^ .^.e^ ,^— ^^Z^'Zc^ 1=1 V (xi — >e2kx> -^^^ A y^^o^^ War Office, Wbitehalh S.W. C/!^^ [ xiii 1 i-^-^-* c^ /I p^.^^ "^^-^ «/^^^^i^^ /y^i^^^^t^i^^ic^ /JlCc^ /^^^ ^/^'^