She was calm. Serene. She told the reverend… "Standing as I do in view of God and Eternity, I realise that patriotism is not enough. I must have no hatred or bitterness towards anyone".
The Breezer - the joyride for a curious mind: A weekly newsletter from Steve Winduss at the Batting the Breeze podcast. Spend a few minutes with me discovering historical snippets and fascinating facts related to the forthcoming week. Add to that occasional updates relating to the podcast, a touch of humour and a dash of "lots more".12th October 2025.
Happy Sunday! If you were based in the UK during the COVID days, you will remember those Thursday evenings when we all stood in the garden bashing our pots and pans to applaud the heroic work of National Health Service staff, particularly the nurses.
It seems a long time ago, doesn’t it?
It turns out that applause doesn’t pay the bills. Since COVID, over 100,000 nurses have left the NHS, with half citing pay as the main reason.
Nursing is a proud profession.
Florence Nightingale convinced Victorian women in 1854 that a lady with a lamp near a battlefield in Crimea may be of more use than a dozen ladies supping afternoon tea in a drawing room in Mayfair.
Nightingale’s revolutionary approach to nursing inspired generations of women into the profession and away from a lifetime of domestic subservience.
One such woman, an extraordinary woman, was Edith Cavell.
The story of Edith Cavell is one of duty and selflessness in the face of overwhelming danger.
Edith was born in 1865 in the village of Swardeston, just outside Norwich. As the daughter of the local vicar in Victorian Britain, she was expected to marry well. She would produce an heir or two, run an efficient household and, yes, arrange afternoon teas in drawing rooms.
Edith Cavell in quieter times with her two dogs. Photo believed to have been taken during one of her visits home to Norfolk before World War I.
However, having followed her father around the parish for years tending to the poor, the notion of service to others wasn’t just duty; it was the reason for living.
Like Florence Nightingale 44 years earlier, Edith raised more than a few eyebrows when she announced that she was entering the nursing profession in 1895. Although Nightingale had elevated the status of nursing, it was still considered beneath a lady in polite society.
After ten years at various hospitals in London, Cavell’s defining move was to Brussels in 1907 where she established a nursing school, the Berkendael Medical Institute. For seven years, she strived to improve nursing standards in Belgium. Cavell was selfless, hard-working, demanding and - to some - intimidating. By August 1914, she had significantly modernised Belgian nursing practices.
But then Germany invaded. World War I had arrived in Belgium.
While many British nurses returned home, Edith stayed put.
At a time like this I am more needed than ever.
Edith Cavell with nursing students at the training hospital in Brussels, pre-1914.
The German army stormed through the country. Their advance was swift and brutal, brushing aside Belgium’s neutrality as ‘merely a scrap of paper’.
Edith’s Berkendael Institute was converted into a Red Cross Hospital. Under the terms of the Geneva Convention, the hospital treated German and Allied soldiers without favour.
Cavell made no distinction. The wounded wore British khaki or German field grey - it made no difference. She cared for them all. It was her duty. It was non-negotiable.
However, Edith’s sense of duty extended beyond the welfare of her patients, beyond bandages and bedpans. If this extended duty were exposed, the nurse from Swardeston would be dragged before a German firing squad before breakfast.
Like many acts of heroism, it started small. A fortnight after the German invasion, two wounded British soldiers from the Battle of Mons arrived at Edith’s hospital seeking treatment and shelter.
As normal, Edith treated their wounds. After a further two weeks, the soldiers asked for a favour. Would Edith help them escape? She didn’t hesitate. Her patients needed help, and she would provide it.
Edith knew the risks, but “Kept Calm and Carried On”.
While the British soldiers fully recovered, Edith made contact with a resistance network. They provided civilian clothes, false identity papers and cash. A guide would then smuggle them out of Belgium across the border, via safe routes, into neutral Netherlands.
And that’s what happened. The process was seamless. A short time later, Edith received written thanks from the soldiers who had arrived safely back in England.
She kept the letter.
One of a series of six postcards – this one depicting Edith Cavell nursing a wounded soldier in Brussels.
Rather than sitting back on her success, Edith repeated the process over 200 times in the following 11 months. By day, she tended to the sick. At night, she ran an escape network on a breathtaking scale. The work required nerves of steel. The German military police were everywhere.
Unfortunately, the Germans were watching.
In August 1915, Cavell was arrested. When the military police ransacked Edith’s quarters, they found incriminating documentation, including that letter from the British soldiers.
Her fate was sealed. Rather than attempt to negotiate, Cavell told the truth. She freely admitted to helping Allied soldiers escape. It was her duty.
On 7 October 1915, Edith Cavell was tried before a German military court with 34 others for treason and espionage. Twenty-seven were acquitted, five received prison sentences but Edith and four others were sentenced to death.
News spread fast. Allied ambassadors and even neutral parties pleaded for clemency. After all, this was a woman who had treated German casualties without discrimination. To no avail.
The night before Edith’s death, a British chaplain, the Reverend Stirling Gahan, visited her cell. She was calm. Serene. She told the reverend…
Standing as I do in view of God and Eternity, I realise that patriotism is not enough. I must have no hatred or bitterness towards anyone.
Five days after her trial, Cavell was taken to the Tir National Shooting Range in Schaerbeek, Brussels. With the same serenity as the night before, the stoical nurse stood before the firing squad. No blindfold. No dramatic speeches.
One hundred and ten years ago today, 12 October 1915, at 7 a.m., Edith Louisa Cavell was executed. She was fifty years old.
Another in a series of six postcards - this one depicting the execution of Edith Cavell in 1915.
Instead of deterring further resistance, the Germans had created a martyr.
After the war in 1919, Edith’s body was exhumed and brought back to England with full military honours.
Florence Nightingale had been honoured with a memorial service at Westminster Abbey. For Edith, it was St Paul’s Cathedral, held simultaneously with her quiet burial service at Norwich Cathedral.
Edith Cavell’s legacy is profound. For years, nursing in Britain had campaigned to be recognised as a regulated profession. The unstoppable momentum from her death left politicians with little choice - the Nurses Registration Act of 1919 was passed.
Those words from the night before Edith’s execution…
Patriotism is not enough. I must have no hatred or bitterness for anyone.
…are inscribed on her memorial statue in St Martin’s Place, London and have been quoted across the world ever since as a symbol of peace.
She is memorialised by statues, street names, schools and hospitals. She is remembered by Mount Edith Cavell in Jasper National Park, Canada. There is even the “Cavell” crater named after her on the planet Venus - should you happen to be passing.
But the most poignant memorial may be that at the original Tir National Shooting Range, where Edith was executed. The site is now a small cemetery and resting place for 365 resistance fighters from both world wars.
Every year on 12 October, a ceremony commemorates Edith Cavell's death at the ‘Enclosure of the Executed’, along with the 35 World War I resistance fighters who were also executed there.
American Red Cross representatives placing a wreath on the grave of Edith Cavell after the departure of the Germans and before her body was exhumed.
Out of Curiosity
On the same day that Edith Cavell was executed, Ford Motor Company was rolling out its one millionth Model T automobile from the Highland Park Plant, Detriot, Michigan. The first Model T arrived seven years earlier. Henry Ford had subsequently revolutionised car production. He introduced the assembly line, where cars tumbled off the line every hour or so. Before automation, a car could be assembled in 12 hours. Now it took only 93 minutes. Within another seven years, Ford would manufacture one million Model Ts in a single year.
Dates with History
Tuesday...
Claude Grahame-White was born in my county, Hampshire, England in 1879. From an early age, Claude had a fascination with machines and speed. He had made his fortune from a motor car business by his early twenties. This was impressive since the first commercial vehicle, the Karl Benz Motorwagen, had only rolled off the production line when he was about six years old. Claude turned his attention to flying. He bought his own Bleriot monoplane and competed in aviation competitions across Europe and America. He earned a reputation as one of the most daring pilots of the era.
Claude Grahame-White in the cockpit – early 1900s.
In 1910, flying was still very much a novelty. So, one autumn morning, when Grahame-White was in Washington D.C. with time on his hands and an aeroplane at his disposal, he decided to cause a stir. He contacted General Robert S. Oliver at the US War Department to inform him of his plan. Word spread rapidly. By the time Claude had started his aerial display over the heart of Washington D.C., a sizeable crowd had gathered. After 15 minutes, his daring acrobatics would give way to a more remarkable and audacious feat. Grahame-White circled the Washington Monument at an altitude of approximately 500 feet, then cut his engine. One hundred and fifteen years ago this Tuesday, 14 October 1910, Claude's Farman III biplane glided down to a perfect landing in the middle of West Executive Avenue, a small roadway between the White House and today’s Eisenhower Executive Office Building. Protocols were a little more relaxed in the early 20th century. Rather than face arrest for a breach of White House security, Grahame-White was celebrated by newspapers and applauded by military officers who had been watching. After a spot of lunch at the Metropolitan Club, Claude departed as elegantly as he had arrived.
Claude Grahame-White taking off from West Executive Avenue next to the White House, after a spot of dinner at the Metropolitan Club 1910.
Through a strange historical coincidence, Claude Grahame-White’s landing alongside the future Eisenhower Executive Office Building coincided with Dwight Eisenhower’s 20th birthday.
Eisenhower was born 135 years ago this Tuesday, 14 October 1890, in Denison, Texas. Of course, there was no connection between the two events at the time - Eisenhower was still unknown and a year away from joining the military. His pacifist mother was devastated when he was accepted into West Point Military Academy in 1911. Thirty-three years later, Eisenhower was appointed Supreme Commander of Allied Forces in Europe. He would orchestrate D-Day on 6 June 1944, the largest amphibious invasion in history. Eleven months later, the Nazis capitulated and the war in Europe was over. Eisenhower’s popularity propelled him into the White House, where he served as the 34th President of the United States from 1953 to 1961. In his 1961 farewell address, Eisenhower recognised America’s pre-eminence as the world’s most powerful nation, but highlighted that America would be judged on ‘how we use our power in the interests of world peace and human betterment’. Despite Eisenhower’s military career, his mother’s fundamental opposition to warfare had always remained in his thoughts. Perhaps her influence played a part in that final farewell address when he noted…
We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals so that security and liberty may prosper together.
Dwight Eisenhower delivers his farewell address, 1961.
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Question of the Week
His favourite novel was “The Sorrows of Young Werther”, a tragic romantic novel by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. He established a new legal code in 1804 that still influences legal systems in over 70 countries today, including the US state of Louisiana. He was reportedly terrified of cats (‘ailurophobia’). He was 5’ 7” tall. He was born on the Mediterranean island of Corsica one year after it was purchased from the Republic of Genoa by the French. He died on the island of St Helena. Who was he?
And Finally
In 1925, Alfred Roberts and Beatrice Ethel Stephenson gave birth to their second child, Margaret. Muriel had been born four years earlier in 1921. The Great War had ended seven years earlier, but Britain was still shell-shocked. Eight hundred and fifty thousand British servicemen had died, countless more were wounded and psychologically scarred. The economy was in tatters, with 12% of the workforce unemployed. The sprawling British Empire still ruled 25% of the world’s population, but cracks were appearing. The two sisters grew up in a flat above a grocery shop in Grantham, Lincolnshire. This was modest living; no hot water and a single outdoor privy. The Roberts household followed strict routines and religious observance. Alfred was a Methodist lay preacher and would become the Mayor of Grantham.
Alfred Robert’s grocery shop, Grantham, as photographed in 2009.
With no television, the girls read, talked and absorbed their father’s beliefs in civic duty and personal responsibility. Margaret and Muriel became lifelong friends. In fact, in early 1950, Margaret engineered a situation where her boyfriend, Billy Cullen, would meet Muriel. The plan worked perfectly: Billy promptly transferred his affections from Margaret to Muriel. Margaret had decided that Billy was better suited to Muriel, and what Margaret decided tended to happen. The union was handled with the warm tenderness of a corporate merger - a glimpse of Margaret’s signature style that would serve her rather well in later life. While Muriel would opt for a farming life with Billy Cullen - they had married in April 1950 - Margaret followed a different path; Oxford scholarship. Research chemist. Barrister. Member of Parliament. And then, in 1979, Britain’s first female Prime Minister - The Iron Lady. Margaret Thatcher was born 100 years ago tomorrow, 13 October 1925.
Margaret Thatcher with US President Ronald Reagan during a working luncheon at Camp David, 1984.
Thank you for joining me. Have a great week!
Steve
HOST & CHIEF STORY HUNTER
P:S: Incidentally, I am always keen to receive your feedback to help me continuously improve this newsletter and the podcast. Just hit reply to this email and...... let it rip! I respond to every email that I receive.
The man in question was Napoleon Bonaparte. At his peak, the French Emperor had ruled 40% of Europe’s population. However, after his disastrous invasion of Russia (1812), defeat at the Battle of Leipzig (1813) and the fall of Paris (1814), he was exiled to the island of Elba. A year later, he triumphantly (and rather bizarrely) returned from exile to reclaim power from King Louis XVIII. However, the European powers would not allow him to once again dominate and subjugate Europe. Having lost the Battle of Waterloo against British and Prussian forces in 1815, Napoleon abdicated again. He handed himself over to the British to avoid being executed by the Prussians. But what to do with the most dangerous man in Europe? Two hundred and ten years ago this Wednesday, 15 October 1815, Napoleon Bonaparte arrived on the remote British territory of St Helena, a tiny volcanic island in the South Atlantic. He remained on the island until his death 6 years later in May 1821.
A rather unflattering drawing of Napoleon looking out to sea on the island of St Helena, 1820. The original drawing was by Captain Dodgin, of the 66th Regiment at Saint Helena.
ATTRIBUTIONS
Edith Cavell: See page for author, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Edith Cavell grave: Courtesy of Library of Congress, no known restrictions on publication.
Edith Cavell execution: Aussie~mobs, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
Edith Cavell and students: See page for author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
Edith Cavell nursing: Aussie~mobs, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
Claude Grahame-White: Courtesy of Library of Congress, no known restrictions on publication.
Claude Grahame-White, White House: Courtesy of Wikipedia.
Dwight Eisenhower: See page for author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
Margaret Thatcher with Ronald Reagan: Unknown photographer, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
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