Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 12, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 January 1918 — Edith Cavell's Cousin in Army [ARTICLE]

Edith Cavell's Cousin in Army

Seeks Vengeance for Brutal Murder of His Boyhood J Companion. NOW IN THE SIGNAL CORPS • ‘ Rejected Many Times by Recruiting Officers in United States and Canada on Account of Small Size -—Wants Blood for Blood. Camp Gordon, Ga.—There is one lad wearing khaki in this camp who entered the army with a fixed determination to avenge a deeply seated private wrong. He is Lawrance R. Cavell of Chicago, first eousin and boyhood companion of Edith Cavell, the English Red Cross nurse whose execution, at the hands of a German firing squad in Brussels sent a thrill of horror through the world. It was no easy matter for young Cavell to break Into the army. Not until after several vain attempts, both in the United States and in Canada, did he succeed in getting himself straightened out on the first quarter of the course which he expects to lead to the satisfaction of his desire for revenge. At the time of the murder of his cousin he was only eighteen and small for his years. His father had been engaged In business in Chicago since he had transplanted the family from the native heath In the county of Kent, England, some years before. Kent was also the 111 fated nurse’s home, and as a very small boy young Cavell had developed an admiration and affection for his cousin, some ten or fifteen years his senior, that bordered almost on adoration.

Inexpressibly shocked by the news of his cousin’s atrocious death, the boy immediately presented himself to the agents of the Canadian recruiting forces in Chicago for enlistment in the overseas service, he was rejected on account of his age and size—he was many pounds' underweight. He even went to Canada and brought all the political influence he could compass to bear in order to carry out his purpose, but again was turned down.

No one could have hailed the entrance of America Into the war with more real joy than he. It would give him his long awaited opportunity to gain some recompense for the murder of his cousin, he thought. He was. again doomed to disappointment. A recrultirfg officer told him that he was too small. Nothing daunted, he carried his case to Washington In person and the matter was placed before the war department through an Influential army officer in Chicago. Permission was given him to volunteer In the signal corps, and this he did in Cfclcago last June. He has just been transferred to Camp Gordon as a member of the outpost company of the 317th signal battalion under Major Hemphill. Eagerly devoting himself to his duties and apt to learn, he already has been scheduled for the rank of top sergeant In his company. He also,has developed his physique until now he is as hardy as the best .soldier in the army.’ He hopes for a transfer to the aviation section, as it is the goal of his ambition to hurl bombs on the Boches from the air. A visitor to Camp Gordon this week to see his son, Cavell’s father called on Captain Allen of the outpost company and recited the story of Lawrence’s long baffled determination 01 .revenge, a thing the boy himself ,had been too modest to do.

The father /aid- the lad had beer brought up in the same house in Kent with Miss Cavell, and that her relationship to him was rather that of a devoted elder sister than of a cousin. “It matters not what branch of service I am in,” the boy told his father. “I shall die satisfied only when I have drawn blood for blood, and I pray God to live to see that day. I expect to. He will answer my .prayer. “Edith was murdered without a hearing in cold blood b? the kaiser. She was an English girl, and they sang the hate song over hpr dead body. I expect to sing the song of hate over the dead bodies of Germ Ans. No sacrifice is too great, no punishment too severe, no hardship too trying; death Itself a coveted reward, just so I am permitted to put bullets into German hearts as that firing squad under orders put them into my cousin’s heart. I am in the war for a purpose' and I shall accomplish it.” Deeply grained as his hatred of the Teuton race had grown, Mr. Cavell said that his. son had no quarrel with Individual Germans. Scores of them in Chicago, he added, had expressed to his fapily their horrifrud resentment of the execution of Miss Cavell.