Edith Cavell postcard - 'To Her Assassins'

« Prev Item Next Item »

1915

Overview

Coloured postcard relating to British nurse, Edith Cavell. It has a grayscale portrait of her wearing a bonnet tied under her chin in a large bow. There is a gold garland surronding the portrait and draping down either side of the text. The flag of the red Cross appears on her left and the Union Jack on her right.
The poem 'To Her Assassins' by Archibald MacCallum is written beneath her portrait.
Copyright and Printer's details are written at the bottom of the card.
The card has surface damage which makes a few of the words difficult to read.

Historical information

Edith Cavell served as a nurse with the Red Cross in Belgium before and during World War I. On August 5, 1915 she was arrested by the Germans on the charge of assisting allied troops to escape to Holland. After being held for nine weeks, Edith confessed and was brought to trial. She was sentenced to death by firing squad, along with her accomplice Philippe Baucq, and was executed on 12 October 1915.
Her story is detailed in an attached link to the Imperial War Museum.

Details

Registration number

cwa-org-119-RoW00056

Item type

Themes

War and Conflict
War and Conflict > World War 1

Material

Card

Width

90 mm

Height or length

140 mm

Inscriptions and markings

Beneath the portrait is written:

"EDITH CAVELL"

At the bottom of the poem:

"ARCHIBALD MACCALLUM"

"Reprinted from 'Glasgow Weekly Herald', Nov., 20, 1915."

Transcripts

"TO HER ASSASSINS"

"Till the river of Time has ceased to flow,
Till the sun grows dark and cold,
Your hands will be stained with the blood you drained
From her heart of unalloyed gold.

Our white-haired sister of mercy,
You drove from her house of clay;
But out on the blood-soaked battlefields,
her soul leads our sons to-day.

You craved for the sound of her dying breath,
You mantled her brow with the red-robed death,
Could less mercy've been shown by wild beasts in their den,
To that angel who nursed your wounded men?

But your nation's a breed of cowards,
Who wallow in women's blood.
Yet you pray for the help of Almighty God,
Lest you drown in this war's red flood.

O hypocrites! Your god's the dead Attila;
Your creed's to leave innocents dead.
You worship the guns that vomit death,
And paint the nights skies red.

Long have you ... that devil-made broth,
Vile brew of ...rder and fraud -
But listen ye... t of the Judgement Day,
When you're ...ned to stand before God?"

Keywords

Place made

United Kingdom

Year

1915

Primary significance criteria

Artistic or aesthetic significance