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Memorial Card · primary-source record

Edith Cavell

1865 (per the page's biographical note) – October 12, 1915

Executed 12 October 1915 · Brussels — memorial service at St. Paul's Cathedral

Editorially verified

At-a-glance facts

Record type

Memorial Card

Date of death

October 12, 1915

Date of birth

1865 (per the page's biographical note)

Age at death

49 or 50 (only the birth year is recorded, not the exact date)

Place of death

EXECUTED AT BRUSSELLS

From the funeral card

In Loving Memory of

NURSE EDITH CAVELL

(Late of the London Hospital)

WHO WAS EXECUTED AT BRUSSELLS,

OCTOBER 12TH, 1915

She was Principal of the Surgical Institute of Brussells.

Memorial Service at St. Paul's Cathedral, October 29, 1915

The facing page of the card is printed with a photographic vignette of Edith Cavell and a poem. Edith Cavell was born in Norfolk in 1865; in 1907 she became the first matron of the Berkendael Medical Institution in Brussels, Belgium, which became a Red Cross center during WWI. She was arrested in 1915, accused of helping Allied soldiers escape to neutral Holland, condemned to death by a military court, and executed on 12 October 1915. The photograph that originally accompanied this record is no longer held in the archive.

Record submitted by

Original contributor unknown — Was it you? Let us know

Source & citation

Source type
Transcription only
Provenance
From the Ancestors at Rest archive — founded 2004 by Brian and substantially built out across two decades by Lorine McGinnis Schulze of Olive Tree Genealogy.
Transcribed by
Ancestors at Rest archive — original contributor not recorded.
Last verified
2026-06-12
Permalink
/records/funeral-cards/cavell-edith-1915/
Image vs transcription
Transcription only — the card itself was not photographed

Citation: "Memorial card of Nurse Edith Cavell, executed at Brussels 12 October 1915, memorial service at St. Paul's Cathedral," transcribed and contributed to the Ancestors at Rest archive (https://ancestorsatrest.com/records/funeral-cards/cavell-edith-1915/ : accessed [your access date]).

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