Treading The Footsteps of Cavell: June 2026
The Worshipful Company of Nurses made their first trip abroad, to follow in the footsteps of Nurse Edith Cavell, learning of her life and the dire circumstances for personnel fighting in the First World War. It was the 10th anniversary of the Company, coinciding with 110 years since ‘the war to end all wars’.
After stoic preparation and organisation by Deirdre Barr, our Military Liaison Officer, the anticipation mounted as 41 members of the Company met in Ebbsfleet to begin our journey to Belgium and Flanders Fields on 14 June 2026.
Our amazing tour guides, Paul and Steve, were a source of incredible information on all matters relating to the war and military medical aspects involved. It is well understood that the paradigms of care changed to manage the severe pressures of casualties and death from devastating trench warfare. There was progress in staunching haemorrhage, use of Thomas’ splint and the beginnings of blood transfusion and anaesthesia, together with casualty clearing stations (CCS) for triage and evacuation of the wounded. Infections from soil were hazardous before we had antibiotics, also mustard gas poisoning, together with horrendous blast injuries presented a scale of casualties that was overwhelming. In one particular 24 hour period staff were presented with 10,000 wounded soldiers, while at the Battle of the Somme 50,000 combatants died on one day.
While visiting various cemetery sites we learned of the lives, service and heroism of a number of soldiers, stretcher bearers, army medics and nurses with such moving and tragic vignettes. We were able to lay a wreath on behalf of the Company, to give respect and thanks with a small dedication by our Liveryman and Master’s Chaplain, Fr Grant Ciccone. Several of our group were able to identify the grave or recorded name of a relative to pay personal respects and leave a cross.
In Ypres the group took part in the atmospheric evening ceremony for the sacrifice made by victims of the First World War whose remains were never recovered or identified – an astonishing mass of Commonwealth troops, commemorated by names carved on the walls of the Menin Gate.
Edith Cavell, who trained at the London Hospital, continued nursing and teaching in Belgium and became embroiled in wartime care of the injured. We visited her place of work and the prison where she was held after being accused of helping soldiers escape.
We had an opportunity to visit the Senate in Brussels, to learn about the Parliament with wonderfully preserved historic rooms. In the courtroom there is a plaque where Edith Cavell and others were tried and sentenced to death for betrayal and collaboration. It was seen as something of a show trial by the Germans to impress their power on the local population to discourage acts of sabotage. Belgium still holds Edith Cavell in high esteem.
It is a rather foreboding cemetery where Edith and others faced the firing squad. There are many graves of those accused of treachery in the underground movement who gave their lives to defend their country. The body of Edith Cavell was later brought home to a heroine’s funeral and is buried in Norwich Cathedral.
The most breathtaking visit was Tyne Cot, an area tended meticulously by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, with rows of neat white headstones in manicured lawns and peppered with flowers, in particular the beautiful red rose bushes, simply named ‘Remembrance’.