The Legend of Edith Cavell

About the Book

In May of 2019, it was a hundred years since the remains of Edith Cavell were brought back to England from Belgium to be given a proper burial—one deserving of a war heroine. Edith Cavell was unique in many ways. She was a Victorian girl raised in a strictly devout Christian family who lived their lives according to the Scriptures. They cared for the welfare of others and regularly gave alms to the poor. Nursing, therefore, became a natural career choice for her and her sisters. An excellent nurse, she was invited to Belgium to modernize the nursing system. But then World War I broke out and a brutal martial law was imposed on the land, which severely interfered with her project. But in Edith Cavell all it did was to bring out her innate humanitarian instincts. Righteous and fearless, she defied the ruthless German military and joined an underground movement, and used her hospital to nurse and hide Allied soldiers who were wounded or had become detached from their regiments, men who would have been shot if caught. Eventually, she was arrested, incarcerated, court-martialled, and then executed by a firing squad; but not before helping hundreds of men escape to neutral Holland. Katie Pickles, in her book, Transnational Outrage: The Death and Commemoration of Edith Cavell, describes her killing as ‘one of the most famous atrocities of the Great War.’

About the Author

Ranjit Jhuboo is a Registered General and Mental Health Nurse, now retired. He believes that Edith Cavell’s name is hardly mentioned in nursing circles, if at all. In this book he has described her life in heroic verse, a testimony to the heroism she displayed during the Great War, both as an exemplary nurse and a supreme human being. He hopes that nurses will endeavour to keep her memory alive. He lives in England and spends time with his children and grandchild, and visits his native Mauritius whenever possible. His first publication is Poetry From my Two Countries.