Memorial napkin about Nurse Edith Cavell published in 1915

CAVELL, Edith. – [Memorial napkin: Nurse Edith Cavell, “The Florence Nightingale of Brussels”]. 
 
Wigan: Palatine Press, [1915]. 
 
Square crepe paper napkin, 375 × 375 mm, printed on one side in red, blue, gold, and black, incorporating a half-tone reproduction of the familiar Daily Mirror portrait of Cavell with her dogs, framed by Union flags and memorial text. Old folds and light foxing to edges but well preserved for such a fragile production. A very good example.
 
Issued within weeks of Edith Cavell’s execution by firing squad on 12 October 1915, this ephemeral napkin was part of the rapid memorialisation of Cavell as a patriotic martyr. A nurse and Red Cross VAD based in Brussels, Cavell was arrested for aiding Allied soldiers to escape occupied Belgium and was prosecuted by a German military court. Her death provoked international outrage and gave rise to a wide range of memorial souvenirs, sermons, and broadsides. The text printed here is an example of the rhetoric that transformed Cavell into a symbol of national sacrifice, employing religious and sentimental imagery: “Our English Edith was made of steel and lilies … 'I am happy to die for my country'. Those words will be inscribed in stars across eternal skies so long as English womanhood is a living thing.” A scarce survival: ephemeral by nature, these napkins were rarely preserved. Only one other noted in commerce, and none currently traced in institutional holdings.