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Nurse Edith CavellPrint Page Print this page

25-June-2005 (Kent Watson)
25-June-2005 (Kent Watson)

Photographs supplied by Kent Watson / Roger Johnson

The memorial and park commemorate Nurse Edith Cavell who was executed by a German firing squad during World War One. The memorial was erected in 1931. 

The area underwent restoration work and is known as Edith Cavell Reserve. A plaque was added to the memorial in 2003 commemorating all nurses who served their country in all wars as well as a plaque dedicated to the women of Australia who stayed at home. 

Edith Cavell was born in 1865 and became a private tutor for a wealthy Belgium family at the age of 25.  After 5 years she returned home to nurse her father, and subsequently became a nurse. Before World War One she was invited to start the first nursing school in Belgium.

She looked after wounded soldiers of both sides and organised an escape route for captured French, British and Belgian soldiers. She hid them in the nurses school and led them through the the streets of Brussels at night to put them in touch with a chain of helpers she had organised.

By 1915 the German secret police had begun to suspect her. She and 34 helpers were arrested and she was sentenced to death. She was executed by a firing squad in 1915. The Ararat State School Mothers Club formed a committee and raised 152 pounds to erect the memorial to register "their disgust at this atrocity". Every ANZAC day a wreath is laid by a nurse before the procession proceeds to the Ararat War Memorial

Location

Address:Barkly & View Point Streets, Edith Cavell Reserve, Ararat, 3377
State:VIC
Area:Foreign
GPS Coordinates:Lat: -37.284751
Long: 142.926377
Note: GPS Coordinates are approximate.
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Details

Monument Type:Monument
Monument Theme:People
Sub-Theme:Medicine
Actual Event Start Date:12-October-1915
Actual Event End Date:12-October-1915

Dedication

Approx. Monument Dedication Date:1931
Front Inscription

To the memory of Nurse Edith Cavell who gave her life in the Great War

1915
            
Plaque : 

In memory of all Nurses who served their country in all wars

"In the midst of darkness they saw light"

2003

Left Side Inscription

Edith Cavell Precinct Restoration Committee

Gwen Rhook             President
Gwenda Allgood        Vice President
Sue Halvorsen           Secretary
Margaret Dunmore     Treasurer
Jan Hiller                    Landscape Designer

Kaye Theobald            Isabel Costello
Elaine Fenn                 Bill Jones
Terry Weeks                 Michael Scherger
 

Right Side Inscription

In honour of all women of Australia for their dedication to their country during all world wars

"They also serve who stay at home"

Inscription in Proximity
Edit Cavell Reserve
Source: MA,RUMV,RSLV,VMR
Monument details supplied by Monument Australia - www.monumentaustralia.org.au