Silent in an Evil Time (7 page)

The Germans transported him to the nearby village of Wiheries, where they had converted a convent into a temporary hospital. German doctors looked after Boger's wounds, but his foot was badly smashed and needed
surgery, which the temporary hospital wasn't equipped to carry out. While Boger was recuperating, Fred Meachin stumbled into the convent, wounded and looking for his commanding officer. The Germans made Meachin a prisoner and put him to bed.

“I don't intend to stay here for long,” Boger said to Meachin.

“Neither do I, sir,” Meachin answered.

After a month, near the end of September, Boger led an escape from the convent hospital that included Meachin and six or seven other British soldiers. The escape wasn't difficult since the Germans posted only one sentry to watch the prisoner patients. While the sentry was eating his breakfast, the soldiers climbed the wall around the convent and hurried off.

Boger and Meachin were taken in by Albert Libiez, a Mons lawyer who had a house in Wiheries. Libiez was a member of a secret group of Belgians and French that was helping English soldiers to escape. The group, still in the early period of its organization, made up plans on the fly – playing things by instinct and hoping for the best. Libiez hid Boger and Meachin in the loft of a shed, in the garden behind his house.

With Libiez's help, Boger and Meachin worked out disguises to enable them to move among the German occupiers. Boger's disguise came easily, since he spoke excellent French. He let his beard grow long and dressed himself in rough clothes, topped off by the black hat and floppy tie that all Belgian factory workers wore. In this outfit, Boger could pass as a local factory hand. Meachin presented a tougher problem. He had no French, and because he looked young and healthy, German soldiers were likely to ask why he wasn't in the Belgian army. The dilemma was solved by stuffing rolls of cloth under the shoulders at the back of his jacket. When Meachin stooped over, he looked like a hunchback. He put a woeful
expression on his face, and presented himself as an unfortunate soul whom no German would think to stop and question.

Meanwhile, in Brussels, Edith continued to experience conflicting emotions. She was disheartened that the clinic wasn't busy enough at its real job of training nurses, and she felt tense over the course of the war. Like other citizens in Belgium, she was apprehensive at the prospect of German rule throughout Europe. Certainly, at this stage in events, it never crossed Edith's mind that she might take a role in opposing the German occupiers. She had no idea that a secret organization was already beginning its work in sheltering British soldiers in the south of Belgium. Nor would she have imagined in her wildest dreams that she might become part of such a valiant organization.

For weeks, Colonel Boger and Sergeant Meachin hid out in Belgian barns and attics, and bluffed their way through two tricky encounters with German soldiers. Then Herman Capiau, an engineer from Mons who worked in the secret organization, offered to guide them to Brussels. Capiau equipped the two with fake identity papers, and on the first day of November, he accompanied them aboard the train from Mons to Brussels. Along the way, a group of young German soldiers got on the train. They were in high spirits, laughing and joking, and when they spotted Meachin, they made fun of the silent hunchback. Meachin almost lashed out at the Germans, which would have given away his identity. Fortunately for Meachin, he kept his temper in check.

In Brussels, Capiau hadn't arranged for a house where Boger and Meachin could stay. He led them to a list of addresses, but no one would
agree to hide the English soldiers – it was too dangerous. Capiau tried Dr. Antoine Depage's house. Marie Depage, the doctor's wife, was the only one at home. The opposite of her prickly husband, Marie was a sunny and charming women who had a warm friendship with Edith. She told Capiau that she, the wife of a prominent Brussels surgeon, couldn't risk helping Boger and Meachin, but as an afterthought, she suggested that he take the two to Edith's clinic. The three men made their way to Rue de la Culture.

At eight o'clock that evening, Capiau knocked on Edith's door at number 149. In the reception room, the senior nurse, Millicent White, was absorbed in reading the
Times
, an October 13 issue of the London newspaper that had been smuggled into the clinic. Afraid that whoever was knocking might be German, White slid the newspaper out of sight. Edith's maid, Marie, answered the door and showed Capiau and the disguised English soldiers into the Matron's office, where Edith was doing paperwork.

Five or six minutes was all the time Edith needed to listen to the men's story and make the most important decision of her life: She offered Boger and Meachin a place in the clinic. With this simple act, she became part of the secret organization helping the Allies against the Germans.

Capiau was relieved to be rid of the responsibility for Boger and Meachin. As he left the clinic for the train station, Edith introduced the two English soldiers to Millicent White. She told White to put Boger and Meachin in beds on the second floor of number 147, the house next door. White was to get the men a meal and treat the colonel's wounded foot.

“Oh, yes,” Edith said, “and be sure to give Colonel Boger and Sergeant Meachin a beer from the kitchen.”

When Boger was comfortable in bed, he read the clinic's copy of the October 13
Times.
The newspaper listed England's casualties in the fighting in Belgium and France. Running down the names on the list, Boger felt suddenly weak. His brother, Captain R.A. Boger of the Royal Engineers and the Royal Flying Corps, was missing in action.

Marie Depage, wife of Dr. Antoine Depage, sometimes helped out at the clinic. But she was more effective behind the scenes, raising money to build the new clinic. In May 1915, she was returning from a fund-raising trip to the United States when her ship was sunk by a German submarine.
(The Royal London Hospital Archives)

Boger and Meachin stayed in the clinic for two weeks, cared for by Edith and her English nurses. From the start, the nurses were in on Edith's decision to help Boger, Meachin, and all the British soldiers who came later. None of them ever backed out of the mission, and none betrayed Edith.

Colonel Boger's foot had become infected. If it got worse, the foot would have to be amputated. Edith used her contacts to find a surgeon who would agree to operate on Boger without needing to know the colonel's identity. The operation saved the foot. Meachin had an easier time. In his hunchback outfit, he often went shopping with Edith to practice mingling with Germans in the city. As soon as Boger's foot healed, Edith would arrange help for the two soldiers to cross into Holland.

The Germans, who were living in all parts of Brussels, didn't notice anything suspicious going on at the clinic. But neighbors on Rue de la Culture began to ask questions about the hunchback and the man with the limp. As a precaution, Edith convinced an English friend in another section of the city to shelter Boger and Meachin until they were ready to leave for Holland. For the escape, Meachin was to wear a different disguise. Someone brought him a dress and a girdle. Meachin said he'd rather be taken prisoner than dress up as a woman. Instead, he agreed to disguise himself in fisherman's clothes.