Published: 18 July 2026
Intro
To understand World War I from a different angle, take a private tour from Bruges with Visit Flanders Fields focusing on the nurses and resistance heroines who risked everything. This guide brings you to sites in Ypres, Brussels and beyond, telling the story of Edith Cavell and other brave women who treated the wounded and smuggled soldiers to safety. Their courage and sacrifice offer a powerful lens on the war.
Who was Edith Cavell?
Edith Cavell was a British nurse born in Norfolk in 1865. She trained in London and became matron of Belgium’s first nursing school in Brussels, where her pioneering work founded modern nursing in the country. When German troops occupied Brussels in August 1914, Cavell refused to return home. She turned her nursing school into a Red Cross hospital treating soldiers of all nationalities. In the months that followed, she joined the underground network La Dame Blanche, helping around 200 British, French and Belgian soldiers escape across the Dutch border.
Cavell’s actions were discovered, and she was arrested on 5 August 1915. Despite international appeals, she was tried by a German court martial and shot at dawn on 12 October 1915. Her final words, “Patriotism is not enough. I must have no hatred or bitterness to anyone,” became famous. Cavell’s death turned her into a martyr and inspired recruitment posters and memorials across the world.
Other heroines and hidden networks
Edith Cavell was not alone. At Froyennes, near the French border, nurse Louise de Bettignies organised a spy ring that provided intelligence to the British before she was captured and died in a German prison. Léonie Vanhoutte, Cavell’s colleague, smuggled soldiers across borders dressed as refugees. In Liège, the engineer Walthère Dewé and his cousin Jean Desonay founded La Dame Blanche, recruiting more than 1,100 agents including over 300 women. They observed railway lines and used couriers to send coded reports to the British. Despite German counter‑espionage, only two members of this network were executed. After the war, the British War Office honoured more than 1,000 La Dame Blanche agents with certificates and medals.
Sites to visit from Bruges
Your tour begins in Ypres at the In Flanders Fields Museum, where exhibits highlight nurses’ contributions and resistance networks. We then travel east to Brussels. At the National Shooting Range (Tir National), a memorial marks the spot where Edith Cavell was executed. Nearby, the Church of Saint Gilles honours her with stained glass windows. In central Brussels, the Place Bollaert features a statue of Cavell gazing towards the North Sea, reminding visitors of her moral compass. After lunch, we visit Poperinge’s Talbot House, where volunteer nurses and chaplains offered rest for soldiers; the museum now displays Cavell memorabilia. The tour continues to Liège to see Walthère Dewé’s former home and the Fort of Loncin, where resistance activity took place. We stop at the Network Martyrs’ Memorial in Schaerbeek to pay respects to agents who were executed. Throughout the day, your guide reads from letters and diaries of nurses and agents, bringing their voices to life.
Practical information
This tour is a long day—around 10 hours—departing Bruges at 08:00. Travel by minivan covers Ypres, Brussels and Liège, with moderate walking at memorials. Some sites involve stairs. Bring valid ID for border crossings into Brussels and Liège. An alternative shorter tour can focus only on Ypres and Brussels. Comfortable shoes and weather‑appropriate clothing are essential.
Keeping memory alive
Learning about nurses and resistance heroines personalises the enormity of the war. Standing at the Tir National memorial or hearing letters read aloud in Talbot House evokes profound respect for those who risked execution to save others. Their stories remind us that compassion and bravery shaped the history of the Ypres Salient as much as military tactics. As you walk away from Cavell’s statue, consider how many other unsung women nursed soldiers, guided fugitives and stood up to occupation.
Join Visit Flanders Fields for this unique journey and honour the women and spies whose courage transcended the battlefield.
