‘Since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.’ Hebrews 12:1
Edith Louisa Cavell was a British nurse who was born just south of Norwich in Norfolk. Before World War 1 she was a matron of a nursing training school in Brussels. When the war commenced she tended and saved lives of soldiers from both sides, German and Belgium, without discrimination. She also helped 200 allied soldiers escape from the then occupied Belgium.
Eventually the enemy caught up with her and in spite of an attempt by the British government to save her, she was executed by firing squad on the 12th October 1915. She was only 49 years old.
In her honour the British allowed her a state funeral in Westminster Abbey; she was the first commoner to be afforded this honour. She is now buried in Norwich Cathedral near where she was born. Her faith was firm right up to the end. In her final words she confessed to the chaplain, Rev Horace Graham, ‘they have all been very kind to me here. But I would say standing here as I do in view of God and eternity, I must have no bitterness towards anyone.’