Norfolk heroine Edith Cavell had told others how her 'woman's heart' would not allow her to sit back and see allied soldiers shot by the German.

Speaking after she had been found guilty the Eastern Daily Press reported on May 16 1919 that one of Edith Cavell's co-accused spoke to her, at the end of the trial in October 1915.

She told the paper that the Norfolk nurse had said: "What could I do? Those poor men (the soldiers she helped) were being shot whenever found by the Germans.

"My woman's heart would not let me sit still while there was so much suffering.

"I determined that, be the cost what it might, I could not close my doors against those poor men.

"The Germans may call it a crime if they like.

"It is a crime of which I am proud, for I am sure that the Christ whom I serve would not have left those men to perish at the hands of their merciless foes."