Though her name does not appear on the title page, The Edith Cavell Nurse from Massachusetts was initially written and published by Alice Fitzgerald in 1917 who earned the honoured position.
Edith Cavell served as matron of a nurse-training school in Brussels, Belgium, when the First World War broke out, and Brussels became occupied territory by the Germans. The nursing training school was converted to a soldiers' hospital, and Edith Cavell served and helped nurse wounded soldiers - both German and Allied prisoners. Edith Cavell hid and helped smuggle prisoners back to Allied territory, most to fight another day. Many she personally funded. Unfortunately, some soldiers wrote back to thank her. All correspondence went through a screening process, and her role in the escape of Allied prisoners was discovered. She was arrested and charged with Treason by the Germans. When interrogated, Edith Cavell readily admitted to what she did. She was held for 10 weeks in solitary confinement without due process of a trial and was finally charged a mere 12 hours before an early morning execution by firing squad.
Consequently, The Edith Cavell Committee was created in Boston with the mandate of finding a suitable nurse to become a replacement for Edith Cavell. After thorough exploration, the position was offered to 41-year-old Alice Fitzgerald who had been head nurse at Johns Hopkins Hospital, Bellevue Hospital, and filled supervisory posts in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, Indianapolis and Wellesley, Massachusetts.
The Edith Cavell nurse from Massachusetts is made up of two portions: Alice Fitzgerald's own story of her acceptance and funding as the Edith Cavell Memorial Nurse, of being offered to work with the British Queen Alexandra Imperial Military Nursing Service, and of working with the Service at Boulogne and Meaulte from 1916 to 1917. Included is a complete account of Edith Cavell's arrest, the fight to save her life from execution, and the execution itself.
Fitzgerald herself went on to serve as Chief Nurse od the American Red Cross in Europe and Director of the Nursing Bureau of the League of the Red Cross Societies in Geneva. Fitzgerald was to win awards and medals from Great Britain, France, Italy, Poland, Serbia, Hungary, and Russia. She continued to work on an International stage, filling leadership roles in nursing and nursing schools. In 1927, she was awarded the Florence Nightingale Medal and returned to the United States to act as Director of Nurses at the Polyclinic Hospital in New York from 1930 to 1936. She retired from her leadership roles in nursing and training in 1948. Alica Fitzgerald passed in 1962.
