Swanley History Group – October 2015 meeting
Nurse Edith Cavell was executed by firing squad in German occupied Belgium on 12 October one hundred years ago, so it was timely that this famous nurse was the topic of the well-attended October meeting of Swanley History Group. In his presentation our speaker Tony Miles, Member of the Orders and Medals Research Society, gave us details of her early life and tragic untimely death. Tony also covered the less well known story of the part she played in fighting a typhoid outbreak in Maidstone early in her nursing career.
Born in 1865, Edith Louise Cavell was the daughter of the vicar of Swardeston, near Norwich. Following the restricted choices of middle class young women of the time she used her education and language skills by becoming a governess, including a post in Brussels. Finding this path restrictive she began her training in nursing at The Royal London Hospital.
During the 1890’s the population of Maidstone and the surrounding countryside grew each Autumn by the migration of large families from the overcrowded slums of Victorian London for hop picking. The biggest typhoid epidemic in Britain started in Maidstone in September 1897. Within eight days 200 people died, mostly from more well off families who had water plumbed to their homes – poor people drank beer not water. The source was traced to an infected reservoir at Tutsham Farm. The skills of probationer nurse Edith Cavell and her colleagues effectively treated the afflicted in temporary hospitals set up in town halls, church halls and even in Mote Park.
Maidstone Town Corporation engaged Mappin and Webb to design a medal in recognition of the professionalism of nursing staff in combating this epidemic. 360 medals were issued – silver for nurses and bronze for ancillary staff. Each medal was named and the ribbons were in blue and yellow – the Corporation colours. Tony’s colleague Robert Davies displayed some examples.
In 1910, at the request of Dr Antoine Depage, Edith Cavell set up a pioneering nurse training hospital in Belgium. Germany invaded Belgium in 1914. Accused of helping allied troops escape to neutral Holland, Edith Cavell was arrested on 5 August 1915 and executed two months later. In May 1919 the train carriage which took her remains from Dover to London, for a state service of remembrance at Westminster Abbey, passed through Swanley. Nurse Edith Cavell is buried with family members in Norwich.
Christina Tyler, Programme Organiser
Nurse Edith Cavell was executed by firing squad in German occupied Belgium on 12 October one hundred years ago, so it was timely that this famous nurse was the topic of the well-attended October meeting of Swanley History Group. In his presentation our speaker Tony Miles, Member of the Orders and Medals Research Society, gave us details of her early life and tragic untimely death. Tony also covered the less well known story of the part she played in fighting a typhoid outbreak in Maidstone early in her nursing career.
Born in 1865, Edith Louise Cavell was the daughter of the vicar of Swardeston, near Norwich. Following the restricted choices of middle class young women of the time she used her education and language skills by becoming a governess, including a post in Brussels. Finding this path restrictive she began her training in nursing at The Royal London Hospital.
During the 1890’s the population of Maidstone and the surrounding countryside grew each Autumn by the migration of large families from the overcrowded slums of Victorian London for hop picking. The biggest typhoid epidemic in Britain started in Maidstone in September 1897. Within eight days 200 people died, mostly from more well off families who had water plumbed to their homes – poor people drank beer not water. The source was traced to an infected reservoir at Tutsham Farm. The skills of probationer nurse Edith Cavell and her colleagues effectively treated the afflicted in temporary hospitals set up in town halls, church halls and even in Mote Park.
Maidstone Town Corporation engaged Mappin and Webb to design a medal in recognition of the professionalism of nursing staff in combating this epidemic. 360 medals were issued – silver for nurses and bronze for ancillary staff. Each medal was named and the ribbons were in blue and yellow – the Corporation colours. Tony’s colleague Robert Davies displayed some examples.
In 1910, at the request of Dr Antoine Depage, Edith Cavell set up a pioneering nurse training hospital in Belgium. Germany invaded Belgium in 1914. Accused of helping allied troops escape to neutral Holland, Edith Cavell was arrested on 5 August 1915 and executed two months later. In May 1919 the train carriage which took her remains from Dover to London, for a state service of remembrance at Westminster Abbey, passed through Swanley. Nurse Edith Cavell is buried with family members in Norwich.
Christina Tyler, Programme Organiser