Edith Cavell

Edith Louisa Cavell was a British nurse. She is celebrated for treating wounded soldiers from both sides without discrimination during the First World War and for helping some 200 Allied soldiers escape from German-occupied Belgium. Cavell was arrested, court-martialled under German military law and sentenced to death by firing squad. Despite international pressure for mercy, the German Government refused to commute her sentence and she was shot. The execution received worldwide condemnation and extensive press coverage.

4 December 1865

Born on the same birth day (4 December): Andrew Brackman • Blake Snell • Frank Reich • Gary Rossington • Joan Brady (American-British writer) • Kevin Richardson (footballer) • Mark Robson (film director) • Martell Webster • Naomi Robson • Sergei Starikov • Victor French

Born in the same month (December 1865): Charles Sands • Elsie de Wolfe • Evangeline Booth • Félix Vallotton • Jacques Hadamard • James M. Canty • Jean Sibelius • Minnie Maddern Fiske • Olavo Bilac • Rudyard Kipling • Szymon Askenazy