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"Patriotism is not enough, I must have no hatred or bitterness towards anyone."

That is the inscription on the statue of Edith Cavell in Saint Martin's Place, near Trafalgar Square in London. In addition to that statue there are literally dozens of statues, streets, schools, parks, hospitals and mountains around the world dedicated to Edith Cavell (here's a partial list).

Why? All these memorials remember her death on October 12, 1915, 93 years ago today.

Raised in Norwich, as a pastor's daughter she went on to serve as a nurse and director of a nursing school in Brussels, Belgium. She was there in that position when World War I broke out.

Edith Cavell helped hundreds of Allied soldiers -- separated from their units, lost behind enemy lines -- escape German-controlled Belgium over the border into the neutral Netherlands from which they could make their way home, obviously in violation of German military law. The Germans arrested Edith on August 3, 1915 and held her in prison for 10 weeks, the last two weeks being in solitary confinement. She was tried and found guilty of harbouring Allied soldiers (not for espionage).

Her case became a huge international incident with the British pessimistic about her fate.

Sir Horace Rowland, from the British Foreign Office said, "I am afraid that it is likely to go hard with Miss Cavell; I am afraid we are powerless." The sentiment was echoed by Lord Robert Cecil, who joined the coalition government in 1915 as an undersecretary for foreign affairs after working for the Red Cross. "Any representation by us," he advised, "will do her more harm than good."

American diplomats expressed outrage over her case:

Representing the United States, which had not yet joined the war, Hugh Gibson, First Secretary of the American legation at Brussels, made clear to the German government that executing Cavell would further harm their nation's already damaged reputation. In a statement issued afterward, he noted:
"We reminded him (Baron von der Lancken) of the burning of Louvain and the sinking of the Lusitania, and told him that this murder would stir all civilized countries with horror and disgust. Count Harrach broke in at this with the rather irrelevant remark that he would rather see Miss Cavell shot than have harm come to one of the humblest German soldiers, and his only regret was that they had not 'three or four English old women to shoot.'"

The German military acted quickly to execute Cavell so that higher German authorities would not issue the pardon . She made no defence, admitting her actions, and was ordered to be executed by firing squad at 2 AM on 12 October.

The night before her execution she told the Anglican chaplain, the Revd Father Gahan, who had been allowed to see her and to give her Holy Communion, "Patriotism is not enough, I must have no hatred or bitterness towards anyone." Her final words to the German pastor, Le Seur, were recorded as, "Ask Father Gahan to tell my loved ones later on that my soul, as I believe, is safe, and that I am glad to die for my country."

The execution of Edith Cavell was widely publicized by the British government through a large number of newspaper articles, pamphlets, images, and books in the months and years immediately following her death. She became an iconic propaganda figure for military recruitment in Britain, and to help increase favourable American sentiment towards the Allies.

She was like so many other Christians in WW1 and WW2 who assisted Allied soldiers and later Jewish refugees and suffered execution by the Germans for their efforts. But Edith Cavell became a symbol and celebrity for British and American war propaganda during and after the war.

One image of Cavell promoted in postcards and newspaper illustrations during the war represented her as an innocent, girlish nurse who became one of the victims of the German war machine. These images implied that men must enlist in the armed forces immediately if they wished to stop the murder of innocent British females. The images portray Cavell, who was 49 years old when she was executed, as a much younger and more attractive-looking woman than photographs of her at the time depict. Cavell became the most prominent British female casualty of World War I and was considered a heroic international martyr to the brutal German war machine.

After the war, Edith Cavell's body was exhumed and returned to the UK. In order to exhume Cavell’s body from St. Gilles Prison, “written permission from the minister of war at Berlin” needed to be obtained . A memorial service at Westminster Abbey led by King George V was followed by travel by special train to Thorpe Station, Norwich. She was reburied on Life's Green, at the east end of Norwich Cathedral. Every year a service is held at the grave.