Google Doodle tribute to Peterborough heroine Edith Cavell

One of the biggest websites in the world has paid tribute to a Peterborough heroine with their latest '˜Google Doodle.'
Edith CavellEdith Cavell
Edith Cavell

Search engine Google regularly celebrates famous and important people on their home page - and today they celebrate the birthday of Edith Cavell, who was born 153 years ago today.

Nurse Cavell was shot at dawn a century ago for helping British soldiers escape occupied Belgium during the First World War.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The nurse, who was educated in Peterborough, went to Brussels to nurse injured soldiers of all nationalities when war broke out in 1914. The clinic she was in charge of became part of a resistance network of safe houses for hundreds of Allied soldiers before they were smuggled into the Netherlands.

However, in August 1915, this resistance group was betrayed by a German collaborator and Cavell was arrested and tried for treason before being executed. Her execution received worldwide condemnation.

Her incredible contribution is remembered across Peterborough - from the name of the medical campus where Peterborough City Hospital is based to a multi-storey car park in the city centre.

Other tributes exist across the world - from a statue in central London, a bridge in New Zealand to a mountain in Canada and a street in South Africa.