Gabrielle Petit (1893 – 1916) was a nurse who became a spy for the Allies during the First World War.
Nurse for the Red Cross
Daughter of workers, Gabrielle Alina Eugenia Maria Petit was born on February 20, 1893 in Tournai (Belgium). She has a sister, named Hélène. After the premature death of her mother, Gabrielle studied at the convent of the Sisters of the Child Jesus, in Brugelette. When German troops invaded Belgium in 1914, she joined the Red Cross as a nurse and her fiancé, Maurice Gobert, joined her regiment. The young man is quickly injured and taken prisoner, but he manages to escape. Gabrielle then helps him to cross the border with the Netherlands so that he can join the Belgian army, entrenched behind the Yser.
The Edith Cavell resistance network
Gabrielle Petit was quickly recruited by the British secret services, who trained her briefly and sent her back on a mission to Brussels in July 1915. Within the “Edith Cavell” resistance network, she then collected information on the positions and movements of enemy troops. and transmits them to the allied staffs. She is arrested and interrogated for the first time by the German secret police who release her for lack of evidence. Gabrielle continues her missions, under the name of Miss Legrand. In January 1916, she was arrested again and then sentenced to death on March 3. She refuses to appeal for clemency, as well as to wear a blindfold on the day of the execution.
Gabrielle Petit was shot on April 1, 1916 in Brussels, at the age of 23. She doesn't have time to finish her last sentence:"Vive le Roi!" Long live the…”. After the war, his remains will be exhumed for a state funeral.