The execution of 49 year-old British matron Edith Cavell on 12 October 1915 in Belgium by occupying German forces was portrayed by the allied cause as one of the key atrocities of the Great War, and stories of her fate flashed around the world. This book recovers and interprets the enormous worldwide reaction to Cavell's death, exploring its contextual relationship within imperial and international history, as well women's history and gender history.