World War I Belgium Heroine, British Spy. She was one of the women executed by the German forces for bravely aiding British forces during World War I. Unlike British Red Cross nurse, Edith Carvell, her notoriety was not public until after the war. Born to Belgium working class parents, Gabrielle Alina Eugenia Marie Pettit attended Catholic boarding schools after her mother died. Working as a saleswoman at the start of World War I, she volunteered to become a Red Cross nurse at the age of twenty-one-years-old. Her espionage activities began in 1914, when she agreed to assist her professional soldier fiancé, Maurice Gobert, cross the border to the Netherlands to reunite with his Belgian regiment. He had been wounded in battle, captured by the Germans, escaped to his parents’ home, and was in dire need of help to return to the safety of his regiment. She was going to help him. During this journey, she informed the British Secret Service of the movements of the Imperial German forces. At this point, she became a hired spy for the British forces and was sent to England for a brief training period. Her fiancé was the first of several men whom she helped to escape German forces. She carried information across the front lines in an underground mail service, wrote for clandestine newspaper "La libre Belgique", and she often used alias names to get her assignment done. She was betrayed by a German loyalist who misrepresented himself as being a neutral Dutchman. After her capture, she refused to reveal to the Germans the identities of her compatriots in exchange for her clemency. For about two months, she was imprisoned at Saint-Gilles in Brussels. She was respected for her stoic patience, proud unassailability and great faith in God. She was found guilty in a German court martial for the crime of treason and executed by a firing squad. Today, there is a monument at this site which honors her along 34 others who were executed during the war and buried in the nearby field at Schaarbeek. Her name is the 4th on the monument and as of May 1919, the monument has been a cenotaph marker for her. On that date, a state funeral was held for her, which was attended by Queen Elisabeth of Belgium, Cardinal Mercier of Brussels and Prime Minister Léon Delacroix. After the funeral, her remains were removed and re-interred in Schaarbeek City Cemetery with full military honors even though she was a civilian. She has been honored with a statue in Brussels; in her city of birth, Tournai, a square was named after her; and the story of her life was told in several biographic books, theater plays, patriotic songs, children's books and movies.