HEROINE OF THE WAR.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21086, 21 January 1932, Page 3

HEROINE OF THE WAR.

ANOTHER NURSE CAVELL. In a Brussels nursing home, surrounded by the care and love of her many Belgian and French friends, a British heroine of the war recently died, at the age of 56, states the Brussels correspondent of a London paper. Her name was Miss Anna Scott James, a name that will always be associated with that of Nurse Edith Cavell, and a name that will ever be revered by scores of British officers and men whose lives she saved. Miss James numbered among her many qualities those ot prudence and almost excessive modesty, with the result that very few of those who were in touch with her daily during the war knew of her work, while those intimately acquainted with her in post-war days could never extract from her any account of her experiences. In 1914 she was teaching English in Brussels, and the outbreak of war found her in straitened circumstances. From her pupils and friends, however, she learned of the desperate condition of British soldiers in the hands of the enemy, and of the perilous position of those in hiding, and determined to do all in her power to help them. In spite of the alertness of the Germans, who forbade the passing of food to British prisoners, she managed subterfuges that could only be surmised to feed the captives. In her bag, with the books she required for her lessons, she always packed whatever kind of food she could collect, which she found herself able by some remarkable means to give to hungry Tommies or officers. She gathered during her daily rounds military information of vital importance to the Allies, which she passed to the proper authorities, and her nights were spent in getting English soldiers out of their hiding places in Brussels, and handing them over at appointed places to co-workers, who saw them safely across the frontier. This task was the most dangerous of all, for she had to conduct the men through the darkened streets after curfew, risking at every corner an encounter with a German patrol. She knew that the fate of her great friend Edith Cavell would be hers were she caught, but that did not daunt her courage. Right till the end of the war she carried on her good work, which was recognised by Earl Haig and by the Britisli Government, which rewarded her with the Military Cross. There is no doubt that the strain of her self-imposed patriotic duties, and the privations which she voluntarily suffered so that British soldiers might have bread, undermined her health, and for the last 18 months she had been undergoing radium treatment. Since the war, in addition to teaching English, Miss James had been giving bridge lessons and courses in English literature. As one of her best friends said, with tears in her eyes, "She had the purest soul and noblest character of anyone I have ever met. She has done more to uphold the highest traditions of the British race among the Belgians, and to imbue them with the love of all that is English, than anybody."