Location: Outside the University St. entrance of Toronto General Hospital
Date photo taken: 4 September 2018
Edith Cavell was a British nurse who served at a Red Cross hospital in occupied Brussels during World War I. While at the hospital, in addition to treating wounded from both sides, she also sheltered and helped arrange the escape of Allied servicemen and Belgian nationals of fighting age across the border to the neutral Netherlands. In August 1915 she was arrested and tried for treason. Found guilty, she was executed by firing squad, an act which caused outrage in Britain and many still-neutral countries such as the United States.
This memorial, which also recognizes the Canadian nurses "who gave their lives for humanity in the Great War", was erected by Societa Italo Canadese on November 11, 1922.
Note: At about the same time I chose this memorial to feature on NeaTO, I started reading Kate Quinn's The Alice Network. It was pure coincidence, but the novel features a female spy network in WWI and Cavell's death is referenced.
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