107年前的这个月, in the early morning hours of 12 October 1915, 英语 nurse Edith Cavell faced a firing squad for her efforts in aiding 法国, 英语, Belgian fighters to cross enemy lines. Cavell was born in 1872 in Swardeston, Norfolk, Engl和, the eldest child of Rev. Frederick 和 Louisa Sophia Warming Cavell. She began her nursing studies at the age of 21 和 in 1906, became the first directress of a Belgian nursing school. Cavell was at home in Engl和 when World War I broke out, 但还是跑回了比利时, knowing her services would be badly needed. Her nursing school was converted into a hospital where Cavell 和 her team treated Belgian, 法国, 英语 soldiers 和 their German foes alike.

Cavell’s troubles began on 5 August 1915 when she was arrested by the Germans on charges of conspiracy 和 sent to St. Gilles prison in Brussels, where she was detained until 7 October when her trial took place. 在试验, Cavell readily admitted her guilt leaving her captors no choice (or so they would maintain) but to impose the penalty of death. They considered Cavell’s actions part of “a well thought-out, 全球范围内 conspiracy which succeeded for nine months in rendering the most valuable service to the enemy to the disadvantage of our Army … only the utmost severity can bring relief.” Her execution would also serve to “frighten those who may presume on their sex to take part in enterprises punishable with death.” Despite eleventh-hour pleas by American 和 Spanish diplomats, Cavell was executed at about 2 o’clock in the morning, “非常冷静，听天由命,” having told the British chaplain to inform her friends 和 family that she had willingly given up her life for her country.

What is the 质量achusetts connection?

1915年12月11日, the citizens of Boston held a memorial service for Nurse Cavell in Steinert Hall. They announced a fundraising campaign to create the position of “Edith Cavell Nurse from 质量achusetts,” a professional nurse who would be sent to serve with the British Expeditionary Forces for the duration of the war. Given the abhorrence of Americans for the sentence imposed on Cavell, the position was quickly funded 和 Alice Fitzgerald, a nurse working at the Dana Hall School in Wellesley, 质量., was selected, arriving in Europe in March of 1916. In 1917, excerpts from her letters home were published as The Edith Cavell Nurse from 质量achusetts: A Record of One Year’s Personal Service with the British Expeditionary Force in France, Boulougne, 1916-1917年的索姆河.

“Each day makes me a week older” —Alice Fitzgerald from the front lines

Alice Fitzgerald was not a 质量achusetts native—she was born in Florence, Italy, to Charles H. Fitzgerald 和 Alice Riggs Lawrdson of Baltimore, 在欧洲长大, graduated from the nursing school at Johns Hopkins in the Class of 1906. 然而, she took her responsibility as the representative of 质量achusetts very seriously, continually corresponding with her backers in the state, 倡导物资供应, 给囚犯的待遇,, 特别是, a gramophone for the entertainment of her patients. She astutely realized that for soldiers recovering from injury, medical care was only part of the solution. 精通几种语言, Fitzgerald also interpreted for 法国 和 German patients, 就像她之前的卡维尔, did not waver in her commitment to serving ally 和 enemy alike. After serving in a casualty clearing station near the front in the fall 和 early winter of 1916, Fitzgerald reassigned to the hospital in Boulogne where she wrote

这是多么令人兴奋啊.S.A. 事务! I am being greeted as a “half ally” now, waiting for the declaration of war to become a “full one.“局势变得非常紧张. The air is full of electricity or rather of activity: What? 当? 在哪里? 谁知道?

对她来说, 菲茨杰拉德在战争中幸存下来, going on to have a varied 和 illustrious career in nursing, establishing nursing schools in Europe 和 Asia, directing nursing programs in New York 和 Maryl和. She died at the age of 87 in New York City.