NURSE GAVEL'S LAST DAYS.

Shannon News, 7 December 1923, Page 3

NURSE GAVEL'S LAST DAYS.

Among visitors to the International Mining Exhibition in London in June Avas M. Henyman Capiau, of Mons, avlio represented the Federation of Belgian Collieries. During the war he Avorked in co-operation .with-Nurse ' Edith Cavell for a considerable time. “I first met Nurse Cavel,” he (told a Press representative, “in November, 1914. Before that I as a mining engineer near Mens, and in the hospital attached to the colliery we had about fifty Avound'ed British officers and men. I made arrangements for the 1 escape of Colonel Bbyer, of the Ist Cheshire Regiment, and Sergeant Meekings, of the same regiment. They Avere hidden in my house for some days, and then I went with them to Brussels, where got in touch with Dr. Depace, Avhose wife was droAvned in the Lusitania on her return from America, AA-here she had been lecturing on Belguim. It was'' through Mrs. Depage that I made the acquaintance of Nurse Cavell, who was in charge of a school of nurses in Brussels. Nurse Cavell took charge of Colonel Beyer and sergeant Meekings and got them through the Dutch-Belgian frontier. After this # we decided to'go on searching for British' officers and men in order to get them back to the army. At that time there was great need for drilled officers and men, and we thought trained men Avould be mote valuable than volunteers. Nurse Cavell and I co-operated for nearly a year, until August, 1915, when we were caught by the Germans. One of our fellow-Avorkers was denounced by a spy in the pay of the enemy, and in consequence of various papers that were found on him we were captured. Thirty of us were caught in all, including Nurse Cavell. Nine were sentenced to death, three to hard labour for life, and thq remainder, including myself, received"sentences of fifteen years’ hard labour. I saw .Nurse Cavell the day before she was executed. She'Avas very brave, and prepared for death without apparent emotion. Her last words to me were: ‘I am glad you have not been sentenced to death; because you have a wife and children. “In the early hours of the following morning,’October 12, we heard a noise in the ; prison, and the tramp of soldiers along the corridors. We knew it meant an execution, but we did not *®drcam. that the sentence of death on Nurse Cavell was to be carried into t effect. We here amazed Avhen wo discovered later that the Germans had l shot a woman'.”