Florence Nightingale biography | birthday, trivia | Italian Activist | Who2 Florence Nightingale Biography Nurse Florence Nightingale earned the nickname “The Lady With the Lamp” for her tireless nursing of British soldiers during the Crimean War. Nightingale was born to wealthy English parents and proved to be a quick-witted and independent child. In 1837 she felt she heard a call from God, though the nature of the calling was unclear. She became interested in nursing and, despite opposition from her parents, trained as a nurse and began work in a London clinic. When the Crimean War broke out in 1854, she led a group of three dozen nurses to Constantinople to serve in British military hospitals there. (This was controversial: female nurses had not served in such wartime field hospitals before.) No shrinking violet, she cajoled army officials to change terrible conditions in the hospitals, thus earning the gratitude of soldiers and a measure of public fame. When the war ended in 1856 she returned to London and continued her reform campaign there.

Her outspoken Notes on Matters Affecting the Health, Efficiency and Hospital Administration of the British Army (1857) and Notes on Hospitals (1859) helped create changes in hygiene and overall treatment of patients. She also founded the groundbreaking Nightingale Training School for nurses, and in later years published dozens of books and pamphlets on public health. Nightingale was awarded the Royal Red Cross by Queen Victoria in 1883, and in 1907 became the first woman to receive the Order of Merit. Extra credit According to the Florence Nightingale Museum, her parents were so wealthy they “toured Europe for two years on their honeymoon”… Nightingale was named for Florence, Italy, the city of her birth… Her older sister was born in Naples in 1819, and was given that city’s ancient name of Parthenope… Florence Nightingale never married… She is often compared to Civil War nurse Clara Barton … Nightingale was played by actress Anna Neagle in the 1951 film The Lady With a Lamp.

Florence Nightingale (1820 — 1910) Florence Nightingale (1820 — 1910) [ Victorian Web Home —> Victorian Political History —> Victorian Social History —> Crimean War ] Section of the Crimean War memorial . Click on the image for a larger view. Florence Nightingale was born on 12 May 1820 at the Villa La Columbaia in Florence; she was named after the city of her birth. Her father, William Edward Nightingale (1794-1874), was son of William Shore, a Sheffield banker. When Nightingale came of age on 21 February 1815 he inherited the Derbyshire estates at Lea Hurst and Woodend in Derbyshire from, and assumed the surname of Peter Nightingale, his mother's uncle. On 1 June 1818 he married Frances Smith, a strong supporter of the abolition of slavery . They had two daughters, Parthenope and Florence. "Parthe" was given the classical name of Naples where she was born.

Florence Nightingale was brought up at Lea Hall; in 1825 the family moved to Lea Hurst which Nightingale had just built. In 1826 he also bought Embley Park, in Hampshire and in1828 he became High Sheriff of the county. The family invariably spent the summer at Lea Hurst and the winter at Embley Park, occasionally visiting London. Florence Nightingale had a broad education and came to dislike the lack of opportunity for females in her social circle. She began to visit the poor but became very interested in looking after those who were ill. She visited hospitals in London and around the country to investigate possible occupations for women there. However, nursing was seen as employment that needed neither study nor intelligence; nurses were considered to be little less than prostitutes at that time. Nightingale's hospital visits began in 1844 and continued for eleven years. She spent the winter and spring of 1849-50 in Egypt with family friends; on the journey from Paris she met two St. Vincent de Paul sisters who gave her an introduction to their convent at Alexandria.

Nightingale saw that the disciplined and well-organised Sisters made better nurses than women in England. Between 31 July to 13 August 1850, Nightingale made her first visit to the Institute of Protestant Deaconesses at Kaiserswerth. The institute had been founded for the care of the destitute in 1833 and had grown into a training school for women teachers and nurses. Her visit convinced Nightingale of the possibilities of making nursing a vocation for ladies. In 1851 she spent four months at Kaiserswerth, training as a sick nurse. When she returned home, she undertook more visits to London hospitals; in the autumn of 1852 she inspected hospitals in Edinburgh and Dublin. In 1853 she accepted her first administrative post when she became superintendent of the Hospital for Invalid Gentlewomen. Florence Nightingale Receiving the Wounded at Scutari — 1856 — The Mission of Mercy by Jerry Barrett. Click on thumbnail for larger picture.

In March 1854 the Crimean War broke out and the reports of the sufferings of the sick and wounded in the English camps created anger in Britain. William Russell, The Times' correspondent, described the terrible neglect of the wounded, and pointed to the differences between the facilities provided for British and French soldiers. He asked: ‘Are there no devoted women among us, able and willing to go forth to minister to the sick and suffering soldiers of the East in the hospitals of Scutari? Are none of the daughters of England, at this extreme hour of need, ready for such a work of mercy? Must we fall so far below the French in self-sacrifice and devotedness?’ (The Times, 15 and 22 September 1854). Nightingale offered her services to the War Office on 14 October but her friend Sidney Herbert — the Secretary for War — already had written to her, suggesting that she should go out to the Crimea. Herbert said that she would 'have plenary authority over all the nurses and ... the fullest assistance and co-operation from the medical staff'. He also promised 'unlimited power of drawing on the government for whatever you think requisite for the success of your mission'.

Nightingale embarked for the Crimea on 21 October with thirty-eight nurses: ten Roman Catholic Sisters, eight Anglican Sisters of Mercy, six nurses from St. John's Institute, and fourteen from various hospitals; Mr. and Mrs. Bracebridge, also went with her. Nightingale refused the offer of service by Mary Seacole . They reached Scutari on 4 November — the eve of the battle of Inkerman . Nightingale's official title was ‘Superintendent of the Female Nurses in the Hospitals in the East’; but she came to be known generally as ‘The Lady-in-Chief.’ Florence Nightingale [in hospital, advising] by Arthur George Walker, R.A. 1861-1936. Bronze. Part of the Crimean War Memorial located at the junction of Lower Regent Street and Pall Mall, London. Her headquarters were in the barrack hospital at Scutari, a huge, filthy place where infection was rife. Stores had not got beyond Varna or had been lost at sea .

Descriptions from Nightingale and her nurses give some idea of the conditions there: There were no vessels for water or utensils of any kind; no soap, towels, or clothes, no hospital clothes; the men lying in their uniforms, stiff with gore and covered with filth to a degree and of a kind no one could write about; their persons covered with vermin . . . We have not seen a drop of milk, and the bread is extremely sour. The butter is most filthy; it is Irish butter in a state of decomposition; and the meat is more like moist leather than food. Potatoes we are waiting for, until they arrive from France . . . The military and medical authorities at Scutari viewed Nightingale's intervention as a reflection on themselves. Many of her own volunteers were inexperienced, and the behaviour of the orderlies was offensive to the women. However, before the end of 1854, Nightingale and her nurses had brought the Scutari hospital into better order. The relief fund organised by The Times sent out stores; other voluntary associations at home were helpful. In December forty-six more nurses went to the Crimea.

Nightingale quickly established a vast kitchen and a laundry; she looked after the soldiers' wives and children, and to provided daily necessities for them. She was on her feet for twenty hours a day and her nurses were also overworked; however, she was the only woman whom she allowed to be in the wards after eight at night, when the other nurses' places were taken by orderlies. The wounded men called her ‘The Lady of the Lamp.’ Longfellow tried to express the feelings for Nightingale in his poem, Santa Filomena . Florence Nightingale [[at hospital door as wounded soldiers arrive] by Arthur George Walker, R.A. 1861-1936. Bronze. Part of the Crimean War Memorial located at the junction of Lower Regent Street and Pall Mall, London. Early in 1855, because of the defects in the sanitation system, there was a great increase in the number of cases of cholera and of typhus fever among Nightingale's patients. Seven of the army doctors and three of the nurses died. Frost-bite and dysentery from exposure in the trenches before Sevastopol made the wards fuller than before.

There were over 2000 sick and wounded in the hospital and in February 1855 the death-rate rose to 42%. The War Office ordered the sanitary commissioners at Scutari to carry out sanitary reforms immediately, after which the death-rate declined rapidly until in June it had fallen to 2%. In May 1855 Nightingale visited the hospitals at and near Balaclava along with Mr. Bracebridge and Alexis Soyer . Nightingale fell ill from Crimean fever and she was dangerously ill for twelve days. Early in June she returned to Scutari and resumed her work there. In addition to her nursing work she tried to provide reading and recreation rooms for the men and their families. In March 1856 she returned to Balaclava and remained there until July when the hospitals were closed. She returned to England privately in August 1856, in a French ship. She entered England unnoticed and went home to Lea Hurst. In September 1856 Nightingale visited Queen Victoria at Balmoral and told the Queen and Prince Albert about everything that 'affects our present military hospital system and the reforms that are needed'.

In November 1855 a Nightingale fund had been set up to found a training school for nurses. This was the only recognition of her services of which Nightingale would approve. By 1860, £50,000 had been collected and the Nightingale School and Home for Nurses was established at St. Thomas's Hospital . Nightingale's health and other occupations prevented her from accepting the post of superintendent but she watched the progress of the new institution with practical interest. She was able to use her experiences in the Crimea for the benefit of the nursing profession. She settled in London and lived the retired life of an invalid, although she spent a great deal of time offering advice and encouragement through her writing and also verbally. In 1857 she issued an exhaustive and confidential report on the workings of the army medical departments in the Crimea and in 1858 she published Notes on Matters affecting the Health, Efficiency and Hospital Administration of the British Army. In 1858 a Commission was appointed to inquire into the sanitary condition of the army: it set a high value on her evidence.

In 1859 an army medical college was opened at Chatham and the first military hospital was established in Woolwich in 1861. During the American Civil War and the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71 her advice was sought by the respective governments. Nightingale was involved in establishing the East London Nursing Society (1868), the Workhouse Nursing Association and National Society for providing Trained Nurses for the Poor (1874) and the Queen's Jubilee Nursing Institute (1890). When the Indian Mutiny broke out in 1857 Nightingale offered to leave for India immediately if there was anything she could do. Her services were not required but she became interested in the sanitary condition of the army and people there. From her work, a Sanitary Department was established in the Indian government. She became familiar with many facets of Indian life and demanded that there should be improvements in health and sanitation there. She did not visit India. She wrote papers on the causes of famine, the need of irrigation and the poverty of the people of India. In 1890 she contributed a paper on village sanitation in India.

Her book, Notes on Nursing first appeared in 1860 and was reprinted many times during in her lifetime. She received was the Order of Merit in 1907 and in 1908 she was awarded the Freedom of the City of London. She had already received the German order of the Cross of Merit and the French gold medal of Secours aux Blessés Militaires. On 10 May 1910 she was presented with the badge of honour of the Norwegian Red Cross Society. Nightingale died in South Street, Park Lane, London, on 13 August 1910 at the age of ninety and was buried on 20 August in the family plot at East Wellow, Hampshire. An offer of burial in Westminster Abbey was refused by her relatives. Memorial services took place in St. Paul's Cathedral and Liverpool Cathedral, among many other places.

Related Material Florence Nightingale | English nurse | Britannica.com Florence Nightingale Alternative Title: Lady of the Lamp Florence Nightingale William Bligh Florence Nightingale, byname Lady with the Lamp (born May 12, 1820, Florence [Italy]—died August 13, 1910, London, England), foundational philosopher of modern nursing , statistician, and social reformer. Nightingale was put in charge of nursing British and allied soldiers in Turkey during the Crimean War . She spent many hours in the wards, and her night rounds giving personal care to the wounded established her image as the “Lady with the Lamp.” Her efforts to formalize nursing education led her to establish the first scientifically based nursing school—the Nightingale School of Nursing, at St. Thomas’ Hospital in London (opened 1860). She also was instrumental in setting up training for midwives and nurses in workhouse infirmaries. She was the first woman awarded the Order of Merit (1907). International Nurses Day , observed annually on May 12, commemorates her birth and celebrates the important role of nurses in health care.

Florence Nightingale at the Barrack Hospital in Scutari (Üsküdar), writing letters for … © Photos.com/Thinkstock Family ties and spiritual awakening Florence Nightingale was the second of two daughters born, during an extended European honeymoon, to William Edward and Frances Nightingale. (William Edward’s original surname was Shore; he changed his name to Nightingale after inheriting his great-uncle’s estate in 1815.) Florence was named after the city of her birth. After returning to England in 1821, the Nightingales had a comfortable lifestyle, dividing their time between two homes, Lea Hurst in Derbyshire , located in central England, and Embley Park in warmer Hampshire , located in south-central England. Embley Park, a large and comfortable estate, became the primary family residence, with the Nightingales taking trips to Lea Hurst in the summer and to London during the social season. Florence Nightingale, c. 1870. Perry Pictures/Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (LC-USZ62-5877) Florence was a precocious child intellectually.

Her father took particular interest in her education, guiding her through history , philosophy , and literature . She excelled in mathematics and languages and was able to read and write French , German , Italian , Greek , and Latin at an early age. Never satisfied with the traditional female skills of home management, she preferred to read the great philosophers and to engage in serious political and social discourse with her father. As part of a liberal Unitarian family, Florence found great comfort in her religious beliefs. At the age of 16, she experienced one of several “calls from God.” She viewed her particular calling as reducing human suffering. Nursing seemed the suitable route to serve both God and humankind. However, despite having cared for sick relatives and tenants on the family estates, her attempts to seek nurse’s training were thwarted by her family as an inappropriate activity for a woman of her stature. Nursing in peace and war Britannica Stories Scientists Ponder Menopause in Killer Whales Despite family reservations, Nightingale was eventually able to enroll at the Institution of Protestant Deaconesses at Kaiserswerth in Germany for two weeks of training in July 1850 and again for three months in July 1851.

There she learned basic nursing skills, the importance of patient observation, and the value of good hospital organization. In 1853 Nightingale sought to break free from her family environment . Through social connections, she became the superintendent of the Institution for Sick Gentlewomen (governesses) in Distressed Circumstances, in London, where she successfully displayed her skills as an administrator by improving nursing care, working conditions, and efficiency of the hospital. After one year she began to realize that her services would be more valuable in an institution that would allow her to train nurses. She considered becoming the superintendent of nurses at King’s College Hospital in London. However, politics, not nursing expertise, was to shape her next move. Florence Nightingale, c. 1850. British Culture and Politics In October 1853 the Turkish Ottoman Empire declared war on Russia, following a series of disputes over holy places in Jerusalem and Russian demands to exercise protection over the Orthodox subjects of the Ottoman sultan. The British and the French, allies of Turkey, sought to curb Russian expansion. The majority of the Crimean War was fought on the Crimean Peninsula in Russia .

However, the British troop base and hospitals for the care of the sick and wounded soldiers were primarily established in Scutari ( Üsküdar ), across the Bosporus from Constantinople ( Istanbul ). The status of the care of the wounded was reported to the London Times by the first modern war correspondent, British journalist William Howard Russell. The newspaper reports stated that soldiers were treated by an incompetent and ineffective medical establishment and that the most basic supplies were not available for care. The British public raised an outcry over the treatment of the soldiers and demanded that the situation be drastically improved. Florence Nightingale, the “Lady with the Lamp,” at the Barrack Hospital at Scutari … Cassell & Company/Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (LC-DIG-pga-00466) Britannica Lists & Quizzes Editor Picks: Exploring 10 Types of Basketball Movies Sidney Herbert, secretary of state at war for the British government, wrote to Nightingale requesting that she lead a group of nurses to Scutari. At the same time, Nightingale wrote to her friend Liz Herbert, Sidney’s wife, asking that she be allowed to lead a private expedition.

Their letters crossed in the mail, but in the end their mutual requests were granted. Nightingale led an officially sanctioned party of 38 women, departing October 21, 1854, and arriving in Scutari at the Barrack Hospital on November 5. Not welcomed by the medical officers, Nightingale found conditions filthy, supplies inadequate, staff uncooperative, and overcrowding severe. Few nurses had access to the cholera wards, and Nightingale, who wanted to gain the confidence of army surgeons by waiting for official military orders for assistance, kept her party from the wards. Five days after Nightingale’s arrival in Scutari, injured soldiers from the Battle of Balaklava and the Battle of Inkerman arrived and overwhelmed the facility. Nightingale said it was the “Kingdom of Hell.” In order to care for the soldiers properly, it was necessary that adequate supplies be obtained. Nightingale bought equipment with funds provided by the London Times and enlisted soldiers’ wives to assist with the laundry. The wards were cleaned and basic care was provided by the nurses. Most important, Nightingale established standards of care, requiring such basic necessities as bathing, clean clothing and dressings, and adequate food.

Attention was given to psychological needs through assistance in writing letters to relatives and through providing educational and recreational activities. Nightingale herself wandered the wards at night, providing support to the patients; this earned her the title of “Lady with the Lamp.” She gained the respect of the soldiers and medical establishment alike. Her accomplishments in providing care and reportedly reducing the mortality rate to about 2 percent brought her fame in England through the press and the soldiers’ letters. (Investigations by historians in the 20th century revealed that the mortality rate at Barrack Hospital under Nightingale’s care was actually much higher than had been reported—the British government had concealed the actual mortality rate.) Florence Nightingale in a hospital ward at Scutari (Üsküdar) during the Crimean War. Day & Son./Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (LC-USZC4-10261) Connect with Britannica Facebook Twitter YouTube Instagram Pinterest In May 1855 Nightingale began the first of several excursions to Crimea; however, shortly after arriving, she fell ill with “Crimean fever”—most likely brucellosis , which she probably contracted from drinking contaminated milk.

Nightingale experienced a slow recovery, as no active treatment was available. The lingering effects of the disease were to last for 25 years, frequently confining her to bed because of severe chronic pain. On March 30, 1856, the Treaty of Paris ended the Crimean War. Nightingale remained in Scutari until the hospitals were ready to close, returning to her home in Derbyshire on August 7, 1856, as a reluctant heroine. Homecoming and legacy Although primarily remembered for her accomplishments during the Crimean War, Nightingale’s greatest achievements centred on attempts to create social reform in health care and nursing. On her return to England, Nightingale was suffering the effects of both brucellosis and exhaustion. In September 1856 she met with Queen Victoria and Prince Albert to discuss the need for reform of the British military establishment. Nightingale kept meticulous records regarding the running of the Barrack Hospital, causes of illness and death, the efficiency of the nursing and medical staffs, and difficulties in purveyance. A Royal Commission was established, which based its findings on the statistical data and analysis provided by Nightingale.

The result was marked reform in the military medical and purveyance systems. In 1855, as a token of gratitude and respect for Nightingale, the Nightingale Fund was established. Through private donations, £45,000 was raised by 1859 and put at Nightingale’s disposal. She used a substantial part of these monies to institute the Nightingale School of Nursing at St. Thomas’ Hospital in London, which opened in 1860. The school formalized secular nursing education, making nursing a viable and respectable option for women who desired employment outside of the home. The model was taken worldwide by matrons (women supervisors of public health institutions). Nightingale’s statistical models—such as the Coxcomb chart, which she developed to assess mortality—and her basic concepts regarding nursing remain applicable today. For these reasons she is considered the foundational philosopher of modern nursing. Coxcomb chart Open Door policy Nightingale improved the health of households through her most famous publication, Notes on Nursing: What It Is and What It Is Not, which provided direction on how to manage the sick. This volume has been in continuous publication worldwide since 1859.

Additional reforms were financed through the Nightingale Fund, and a school for the education of midwives was established at King’s College Hospital in 1862. Believing that the most important location for the care of the sick was in the home, she established training for district nursing, which was aimed at improving the health of the poor and vulnerable . A second Royal Commission examined the health of India, resulting in major environmental reform, again based on Nightingale’s statistical data. Florence Nightingale was honoured in her lifetime by receiving the title of Lady of Grace of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem and by becoming the first woman to receive the Order of Merit . On her death in 1910, at Nightingale’s prior request, her family declined the offer of a state funeral and burial in Westminster Abbey . Instead, she was honoured with a memorial service at St. Paul’s Cathedral , London. Her burial is in the family plot in St. Margaret’s Church, East Wellow, Hampshire.

Florence Nightingale and the Crimean War | Understanding Uncertainty Florence Nightingale and the Crimean War Submitted by ims25 on Tue, 07/10/2008 - 5:06pm On 28 March 1854 Britain and France declared war on Russia, and for the next two years British, French, Sardinian, and Turkish troops fought against Russians in the Crimean War. The loss of life in the war was colossal; of 1 650 000 soldiers who began the war (of all nations), 900 000 died. The majority of those who perished did not die from wounds; rather they died from diseases brought about by the terrible living conditions which they suffered. In these notes we review the Crimean War, and the role Florence Nightingale had in highlighting the plight of the soldiers. Siege of Sevastopol Background to the war The Ottoman Empire (1293-1922) was a realm centred on Turkey, which, during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, spanned thousands of miles into Africa, Asia, and Europe.

The empire declined in the nineteenth century, and as it shrank there was conflict over control of the territory. The Holy Land (modern day Israel) was a region in the Ottoman Empire that had a long history of power struggles. In the 1850s France and Russia vied for authority of the Holy Land, each trying to force their will on the Ottomans who occupied the territory. Their disagreement escalated, and as the threat of Russian interference in the whole Ottoman Empire increased, Britain, Austria, and Prussia became involved to try to maintain stability of the empire. Initial peaceful negotiations failed, and the British and French sided with the Turkish Ottomans in war against the Russians. Major events of the war Most of the conflict in the Crimean War occurred on the Crimean Peninsula, which lies on the southern tip of Ukraine, and projects into the Black Sea. The Crimea was an important military position for the Russians, because their naval fleet could access the Mediterranean Sea from the region. Several of the more significant battles in the Crimean War are described below. The Battle of the Alma (20 September 1854).

In the first battle of the Crimean War, British and French forces clashed with Russian forces near the River Alma in the Crimea. The Russians were defeated. Siege of Sevastopol (25 September 1854 to 8 September 1855). Sevastopol is a city in the south of the Crimea, and it was the home of a major fleet of Russian ships. The British, French, and Turkish troops besieged the city for one year before finally capturing it on the 9 September 1855. The Battle of Balaclava (25 October 1854). The Battle of Balaclava is now remembered for the calamitous Charge of the Light Brigade which saw British cavalry charge needlessly to their doom under the muddled and misinformed orders of their superiors. Much of the fame of this futile advance is due to a poem by Alfred, Lord Tennyson entitled 'The Charge of the Light Brigade', which describes the bravery of the cavalry under incompetent command. The Battle of Balaclava involved British, French, Turkish, and Russian armies. It finished inconclusively, although the Russians suffered heavier losses.

The Battle of Eupatoria (17 February 1855). A large Russian force attacked the town of Eupatoria in the Crimea, which was occupied by the Turks. The Russians were repelled. The Sea of Azov naval campaign (25 May 1855 to 22 November 1855). British and French war ships attacked Russian ports from the Sea of Azov during a six month period in 1855. The object of these attacks was to intercept Russian communications and supplies. The war ships bombarded the Russian towns repeatedly, but they were met with stubborn resistance, and attempts to land and overthrow the port towns were quashed. Map of Crimea with locations of battles marked. The close of the war The war concluded in February 1856. The Ottoman and Russian Empires agreed to halt military activity on the Black Sea, and all nations agreed to respect the autonomy of the Ottoman Empire. The peace treaty was not to last long though. The balance of power and partnership in Europe was in a state of constant flux. Old alliances failed, new alliances were formed, and by the 1870s the treaty had been abandoned.

Florence Nightingale's role in the war Those British troops wounded from fighting on the Crimean Peninsula were shipped across the Black Sea to medical stations in Turkey. These stations were poorly staffed, with insufficient supplies, and the medical and sanitary conditions were awful. This terrible state of affairs was reported by the media in Britain. Thirty eight voluntary nurses, amongst them Florence Nightingale, travelled to Turkey to help relieve the situation. Nightingale proved herself to be hugely resourceful. Her competence and generosity were reported back in Great Britain. The Times Newspaper described her deeds in the following excerpt. She is a 'ministering angel' without any exaggeration in these hospitals, and as her slender form glides quietly along each corridor, every poor fellow's face softens with gratitude at the sight of her. When all the medical officers have retired for the night and silence and darkness have settled down upon those miles of prostrate sick, she may be observed alone, with a little lamp in her hand, making her solitary rounds. Nightingale became known as 'The Lady with the Lamp' after these words were published in the Times.

Florence Nightingale Diseases such as typhus, typhoid, cholera, and dysentery were rife in the army hospitals. Many more soldiers were dying from diseases than from wounds. Nightingale worked towards improvements in sanitation, nutrition, and activity for the patients of the hospitals. Death rates were reduced dramatically with the introduction of such measures. Nightingale kept meticulous records of the number of deaths, and the causes of deaths, so that on her return to Great Britain she could justify the need for improving conditions in hospitals. Following Nightingale's return to Great Britain and her campaign for better living conditions for the army, the Royal Commission on the Health of the Army was created. Nightingale prepared an 800 page report for the commission on the welfare of the army. She advocated the use of statistics as a tool in decision making. Nightingale created graphs to demonstrate that more soldiers died in the Crimean War from disease than from wounds. Many of these graphs were of a particular flower like type, and are now described as coxcombs.

Levels: Florence Nightingale Biography (Activist/Nurse) Died: 13 August 1910 (Natural causes) Birthplace: Florence, Italy Best known as: British nursing hero of the Crimean War Florence Nightingale earned the nickname "The Lady With the Lamp" for her tireless nursing of British soldiers during the Crimean War. Nightingale was born to wealthy English parents and proved to be a quick-witted and independent child. In 1837 she felt she heard a call from God, though the nature of the calling was unclear. She became interested in nursing and, despite opposition from her parents, trained as a nurse and began work in a London clinic. When the Crimean War broke out in 1854, she led a group of three dozen nurses to Constantinople to serve in British military hospitals there. (This was controversial: female nurses had not served in such wartime field hospitals before.) No shrinking violet, she cajoled army officials to change terrible conditions in the hospitals, thus earning the gratitude of soldiers and a measure of public fame. When the war ended in 1856 she returned to London and continued her reform campaign there.

Her outspoken Notes on Matters Affecting the Health, Efficiency and Hospital Administration of the British Army (1857) and Notes on Hospitals (1859) helped create changes in hygiene and overall treatment of patients. She also founded the groundbreaking Nightingale Training School for nurses, and in later years published dozens of books and pamphlets on public health. Nightingale was awarded the Royal Red Cross by Queen Victoria in 1883, and in 1907 became the first woman to receive the Order of Merit. Extra credit: According to the Florence Nightingale Museum, her parents were so wealthy they “toured Europe for two years on their honeymoon”… Nightingale was named for Florence, Italy, the city of her birth… Her older sister was born in Naples in 1819, and was given that city’s ancient name of Parthenope… Florence Nightingale never married… She is often compared to Civil War nurse Clara Barton … Nightingale was played by actress Anna Neagle in the 1951 film The Lady With a Lamp. Copyright © 1998-2017 by Who2?, LLC. All rights reserved.

Nightingale biography Version for printing Florence Nightingale is best remembered for her work as a nurse during the Crimean War and her contribution towards the reform of the sanitary conditions in military field hospitals. However, what is less well known about this amazing woman is her love of mathematics, especially statistics, and how this love played an important part in her life's work. Named after the city of her birth, Nightingale was born at the Villa Colombia in Florence, Italy, on 12 May 1820. Her parents, William Edward Nightingale and his wife Frances Smith, were touring Europe for the first two years of their marriage. Nightingale's elder sister had been born in Naples the year before. The Nightingales gave their first born the Greek name for the city, which was Parthenope. William Nightingale had been born with the surname Shore but he had changed it to Nightingale after inheriting from a rich relative, Peter Nightingale of Lea, near Matlock, Derbyshire. The girls grew up in the country spending much of their time at Lea Hurst in Derbyshire.

When Nightingale was about five years old her father bought a house called Embley near Romsey in Hampshire. This now meant that the family spent the summer months in Derbyshire, while the rest of the year was spent at Embley. Between these moves there were trips to London, the Isle of Wight, and to relatives. The early education of Parthenope and Florence was placed in the hands of governesses, later their Cambridge educated father took over the responsibility himself. Nightingale loved her lessons and had a natural ability for studying. Under her father's influence Nightingale became acquainted with the classics, Euclid , Aristotle , the Bible, and political matters. In 1840, Nightingale begged her parents to let her study mathematics instead of:- ... worsted work and practising quadrilles, but her mother did not approve of this idea. Although William Nightingale loved mathematics and had bequeathed this love to his daughter, he urged her to study subjects more appropriate for a woman. After many long emotional battles, Nightingale's parents finally gave their permission and allowed her to be tutored in mathematics. Her tutors included Sylvester , who developed the theory of invariants with Cayley .

Nightingale was said to be Sylvester 's most distinguished pupil. Lessons included learning arithmetic, geometry and algebra and prior to Nightingale entered nursing, she spent time tutoring children in these subjects. Nightingale's interest in mathematics extended beyond the subject matter. One of the people who also influenced Nightingale was the Belgian scientist Quetelet . He had applied statistical methods to data from several fields, including moral statistics or social sciences. Religion played an important part in Nightingale's life. Her unbiased view on religion, unusual at the time, was owed to the liberal outlook Nightingale found in her home. Although her parents were from a Unitarian background, Frances Nightingale found a more conventional denomination preferable and the girls were brought up as members of the Church of England. On 7 February 1837 Nightingale believed she heard her calling from God, whilst walking in the garden at Embley, although at this time though she did not know what this calling was. Nightingale developed an interest in the social issues of the time, but in 1845 her family was firmly against the suggestion of Nightingale gaining any hospital experience.

Until then the only nursing that she had done was looking after sick friends and relatives. During the mid-nineteenth century nursing was not considered a suitable profession for a well-educated woman. Nurses of the time were lacking in training and they also had the reputation of being coarse, ignorant women, given to promiscuity and drunkenness. While Nightingale was on a tour of Europe and Egypt starting in 1849, with family friends Charles and Selina Bracebridge, she had the chance to study the different hospital systems. In early 1850 Nightingale began her training as a nurse at the Institute of St Vincent de Paul in Alexandria, Egypt, which was a hospital run by the Roman Catholic Church. Nightingale visited Pastor Theodor Fliedner's hospital at Kaiserswerth, near Düsseldorf, in July 1850. Nightingale returned to Kaiserswerth, in 1851, to undertake 3 months of nursing training at the Institute for Protestant Deaconesses and from Germany she moved to a hospital in St Germain, near Paris, run by the Sisters of Mercy.

On returning to London in 1853 Nightingale took up the unpaid position as the Superintendent at the Establishment for Gentlewomen during Illness at No 1 Harley Street. March of 1854 brought the start of the Crimean War, with Britain, France and Turkey declaring war on Russia. Although the Russians were defeated at the battle of the Alma River, on 20 September 1854, The Times newspaper criticised the British medical facilities. In response to this Nightingale was asked in a letter from her friend Sidney Herbert, the British Secretary for War, to become a nursing administrator to oversee the introduction of nurses to military hospitals. Her official title was Superintendent of the Female Nursing Establishment of the English General Hospitals in Turkey. Nightingale arrived in Scutari, an Asian suburb of Constantinople, (now Istanbul), with 38 nurses on 4 November 1854 [ 2 ]:- ... her zeal, her devotion, and her perseverance would yield to no rebuff and to no difficulty.

She went steadily and unwearyingly about her work with a judgement, a self-sacrifice, a courage, a tender sympathy, and withal a quiet and unostentatious demeanour that won the hearts of all who were not prevented by official prejudices from appreciating the nobility of her work and character. Although being female meant Nightingale had to fight against the military authorities at every step, she went about reforming the hospital system. With conditions which resulted in soldiers lying on bare floors surrounded by vermin and unhygienic operations taking place it is not surprising that, when Nightingale first arrived in Scutari, diseases such as cholera and typhus were rife in the hospitals. This meant that injured soldiers were 7 times more likely to die from disease in hospital, than on the battlefield. Whilst in Turkey, Nightingale collected data and organised a record keeping system, this information was then used as a tool to improve city and military hospitals. Nightingale's knowledge of mathematics became evident when she used her collected data to calculate the mortality rate in the hospital. These calculations showed that an improvement of the sanitary methods employed would result in a decrease in the number of deaths.

By February 1855 the mortality rate had dropped from 60% to 42.7%. Through the establishment of a fresh water supply as well as using her own funds to buy fruit, vegetables and standard hospital equipment, the mortality rate in the spring had dropped further to 2.2%. Nightingale used this statistical data to create her Polar Area Diagram, or "coxcombs" as she called them. These were used to give a graphical representation of the mortality figures during the Crimean War (1854 - 56). The area of each coloured wedge, measured from the centre as a common point, is in proportion to the statistic it represents. The blue outer wedges represent the deaths from:- ... preventable or mitigable zymotic diseases or in other words contagious diseases such as cholera and typhus. The central red wedges show the deaths from wounds. The black wedges in between represent deaths from all other causes. Deaths in the British field hospitals reached a peak during January 1855, when 2,761 soldiers died of contagious diseases, 83 from wounds and 324 from other causes making a total of 3,168.

The army's average manpower for that month was 32,393. Using this information, Nightingale computed a mortality rate of 1,174 per 10,000 with 1,023 per 10,000 being from zymotic diseases. If this rate had continued, and troops had not been replaced frequently, then disease alone would have killed the entire British army in the Crimea. These unsanitary conditions, however, were not only limited to military hospitals in the field. On her return to London in August 1856, four months after the signing of the peace treaty, Nightingale discovered that soldiers during peacetime, aged between 20 and 35 had twice the mortality rate of civilians. Using her statistics, she illustrated the need for sanitary reform in all military hospitals. While pressing her case, Nightingale gained the attention of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert as well as that of the Prime Minister, Lord Palmerston. Her wishes for a formal investigation were granted in May 1857 and led to the establishment of the Royal Commission on the Health of the Army.

Nightingale hid herself from public attention, and became concerned for the army stationed in India. In 1858, for her contributions to army and hospital statistics Nightingale became the first woman to be elected to be a Fellow of the Royal Statistical Society . In 1860, the Nightingale Training School and Home for Nurses based at St Thomas's Hospital in London, opened with 10 students. It was financed by the Nightingale Fund, a fund of public contributions set up during Nightingale's time in the Crimea and had raised a total of £50,000. It was based around two principles. Firstly that the nurses should have practical training in hospitals specially organised for that purpose. The other was that the nurses should live in a home fit to form a moral life and discipline. Due to the foundation of this school Nightingale had achieved the transformation of nursing from its disreputable past into a responsible and respectable career for women. Nightingale responded to the British war office's request for advice on army medical care in Canada and was also a consultant to the United States government on army health during the American Civil War.

For most of the remainder of her life Nightingale was bedridden due to an illness contracted in the Crimea, which prevented her from continuing her own work as a nurse. This illness did not stop her, however, campaigning to improve health standards; she published 200 books, reports and pamphlets. One of these publications was a book entitled Notes on Nursing (1860). This was the first textbook specifically for use in the teaching of nurses and was translated into many languages. Nightingale's other published works included Notes on Hospitals (1859) and Notes on Nursing for the Labouring Classes (1861). Florence Nightingale deeply believed that her work had been her calling from God. In 1874 she became an honorary member of the American Statistical Association and in 1883 Queen Victoria awarded Nightingale the Royal Red Cross for her work. She also became the first woman to receive the Order of Merit from Edward VII in 1907. Nightingale died on 13 August 1910 aged 90. She is buried at St Margaret's Church, East Wellow, near Embley Park.

Nightingale never married, although this was not from lack of opportunity. She believed, however, that God had decided she was one whom he:- ... had clearly marked out ... to be a single woman. The Crimean Monument, erected in 1915 in Waterloo Place, London, was done so in honour of the contribution Florence Nightingale had made to this war and the health of the army. Article by: J J O'Connor and E F Robertson based on a project by Suzanne Davidson. IMA Hero: Florence Nightingale HH Contents: Florence Nightingale | Fl orence's Calling | Crimean War | Red Cross | Hospital Improvements | Nightingale Training School | Nursing Becomes a Respectable Profession | Honoring Florence Florence Nightingale (1820-1910) Florence Nightingale is the founder of modern nursing. She transformed nursing into a respectable profession and set the standards for clean, safe hospitals in the world. Florence is honored as the first great nurse of the world. Her picture hangs on the wall in many hospitals. Florence Nightingale was born on May 12, 1820, in Florence, Italy. She was named Florence after her city of birth.

Florence's sister was born in Naples and is named Parthenope. Parthenope is the Greek name for Naples. Top of Page Florence's Calling When Florence was 24 years old, she had a "calling" from God. She wrote in her journal, "God spoke to me and called me to His service." Florence decided her calling was to help the sick and the poor by becoming a nurse. Florence came from a wealthy family and was not expected to work. It was especially unacceptable for Florence to work as a nurse because nursing was not a respectable profession at this time. This, however, did not stop Florence from following her desires. Florence went to the Institute of Deaconesses in Kaiserswerth, Germany, to learn about nursing. At this time, nurses learned through experience, not through training. Florence treated sick people, distributed medicine, and assisted during operations. She was very happy and said, "We learned to think of our work, not ourselves." Top of Page The Crimean War In 1854, England entered the Crimean War. Florence and a team of 38 nurses went to the Crimea (near Turkey) to help the wounded soldiers.

The military hospitals were dirty and run down. Florence made sanitary improvements which helped bring the death rate down from 40% to 2%. Florence was kind and gentle with the soldiers. She would talk with them and comfort them as she made her rounds. This gave the soldiers hope. When Florence made her rounds at night, she carried a lamp with her to light her way and became known as "The Lady with the Lamp." Top of Page The Red Cross Florence's work in the Crimean War inspired Jean Henri Dunant. In 1864, Dunant founded the International Red Cross. It began as an international society of volunteers who cared for sick and wounded soldiers and prisoners of war. Today, the Red Cross also provides disaster relief during peacetime. Top of Page Hospital Improvements During Florence's time, the hospitals were overcrowded, poorly run, and disease infested. They were doing more harm than good. Florence thought hospitals should help patients, not hurt them. This was a revolutionary idea at the time. Florence wrote Notes on Hospitals explaining how to make improvements to hospitals. She believed hospitals needed better ventilation, more windows, improved drainage, and less cramped conditions.

With Florence's guidance, hospitals became clean and sanitary places where lives were saved, not lost. Florence also became an expert on designing hospitals. Foreign rulers sought her advice when building their hospitals. Soon, hospitals throughout the world were being built according to her ideas. Today, we still see how Florence has improved hospitals. The flowers, recreation rooms, and bright wards are an influence of Florence's work. Top of Page Nightingale Training School for Nurses Florence thought nurses should learn through both experience and training. In 1860, Florence opened the first training school for nurses. It was called the Nightingale Training School, and the nurses were called Nightingale Nurses. Today, the Nightingale Nurses carry on Florence's work of caring for the sick and the poor. Top of Page Nursing becomes a Respectable Profession Florence created high standards for the nursing profession. These standards helped transform nursing into the respectable profession we know today. Florence's writings continue to provide excellent resources for nurses and health care providers. Her book, Notes on Nursing, spells out the principles of nursing. Top of Page Honoring Florence Florence Nightingale died on August 13, 1910, in London, England. She was 90 years old.

She is buried at St. Margaret's, East Wellow, near her family home at Embley. Her inscription states, "F.N. Born 1820. Died 1910." She did not want any other memorial. Many nurses came to pay tribute to Florence at her funeral. Florence has been commemorated on stamps, medals, and the British �10. The Florence Nightingale Pledge for nurses is still recited today. In England, there are two wreath laying ceremonies to commemorate Florence's birthday. There are several monuments, plaques, and museums around the world in Florence's honor. In England, there are monuments in London and St. Margaret's Church, where she is buried. In Italy, there are plaques commemorating Florence's birthplace. In Turkey, there is a museum established in part of the Barracks Hospital used by Florence during the Crimean War. Florence revolutionized the nursing profession and is a hero in our hearts.

Florence Nightingale: Her Birthplace By:Joy Shiller, RN, BSN, MS, CAPA RN As fellow nurses, you are no doubt well aware of Florence Nightingale's work, from before and during the Crimean War, to the Post-War Era, the Reform Years, and beyond. But do you know her earliest family history? Florence's parents were extraordinarily wealthy, and like other well-off British citizens, they chose to travel throughout Europe after the Napoleonic Wars. Setting out on a two-year tour shortly after their marriage�with an entourage of servants in tow�they rented luxurious villas for extended periods of time. During their stay, two daughters were born, each named after the cities in which they resided at the time. Her older sister, Parthenope, was born in Naples on April 19, 1819. Florence arrived on May 12, 1820, in the Villa Columbaia near the Porta Romana in Florence. On July 4, 1820, Florence was christened in the Villa's salon.1 When she was a year old, the family returned to England.

The Villa Columbaia I had the opportunity to literally walk in Florence's footsteps when I joined a tour company visiting several cities in Italy. Realizing there would be a free afternoon in the City of Flowers, I skipped the Uffizi and decided to explore the Villa Columbaia on my own. Thanks to the Internet, I discovered it had since been converted into a private Catholic school run by the Adorers of the Blood of Christ Sisters. Visitors were encouraged to bring an Italian interpreter, as the nuns did not speak English, and to schedule visits before 6:00 p.m., which was their prayer time. Our Italian tour guide volunteered to serve as an interpreter, since she happened to have a personal interest in Miss Nightingale. Soon, we were off. The Villa, located just on the outskirts of the heart of Florence, sits on a very steep hill. Upon arrival, we were greeted by a lovely, incredibly enthusiastic Italian nun who gave us the royal tour. She was extremely proud of the historical significance of the Villa and its connection to Florence Nightingale.

However, she was even more filled with pride that she was one of the six original remaining Sisters who, in 1957, had converted the then dilapidated building into a residence for the nuns and, in 1964, a school. The building was in pristine condition, and the meticulous grounds were as impressive as the interior. We walked down a long tree-lined path and were treated to an unexpected magnificent panoramic view of the heart of the city. The nun gave us a pamphlet that fleshed out the Villa's history. I learned that the original structure was constructed in the 1400s and owned by the Serragli family. Additions to the Villa continued until the 1700s. After a series of owners, it was restored at the end of the 1800s, decades after Florence Nightingale's birth. The Villa regained its splendor and became a place for lavish parties and receptions. Then, during World War I, it was converted into a hospital. In 1915, the Villa was confiscated by the state and, 12 years later, sold to Ernest Foster, whose daughter would eventually sell it to the Sisters.

RICORDIAMO IL GRANDE CUORE A SERVICE OF HEALTH ASSISTANCE WORTHY OF THE MODERN WORLD The structure underwent major renovations in the '70s and again in the '90s. Interestingly, the nun proudly showed us a 13th century carving of a Madonna and Child, found within a bedroom wall during recent work. Next, my guide eagerly ushered me into the room where Florence Nightingale was allegedly born. For me, standing in that room alone was more of an emotional experience than standing in the Sistine Chapel a few days earlier with the mobs of tourists! As we were leaving, with a huge smile on her face, the nun pointed to the large plaque on the exterior. Although written in Italian, it clearly designated the building as the birthplace of Florence Nightingale. A special place I earnestly believe the nun relished our visit. This special place represented her home for half a century and the fruits of her labor. Although she didn't speak English, she was obviously thrilled about our sincere interest in what was so significant to her. Florence, Italy, is the city of the Renaissance.

But for me, my fondest memory was the time spent at Villa Columbaia, birthplace of Florence Nightingale�the one person in the history of the world whom I most admire. 1. Gill, G. (2005). The extraordinary upbringing and curious life of Miss Florence Nightingale. New York: Random House. Photos courtesy of Joy Shiller Florence Nightingale – The Lady with the Lamp « Remove Ads Florence Nightingale – The Lady with the Lamp Florence Nightingale was born on May 12, 1820 in Florence, Italy while her wealthy parents were on a tour of Europe. She was named after the city where she was born. Florence’s father was a landowner. Florence was raised on the family estate at Lea Hurst, England. Her father taught her Greek, Latin, French, German, Italian, history, philosophy and mathematics. Like most upperclass mothers at this time, Frances Nightingale, expected her daughters to marry, look after a home, and maybe do some charity work. Florence thought there was more to life. When she was growing up she helped take care of poor and sick people in the village near her family’s estate.

When she was 17, Florence felt God wanted her to be a nurse. In Victorian England, most nurses were uneducated and thought to be of questionable morals, so her parents did not want her to be a nurse. Hospital conditions at that time were terrible. Doctors did operations with no anesthetic, and many people who went to hospitals died. Florence began to visit hospitals. In 1849-50 she was in Egypt where two St. Vincent de Paul sisters showed her their hospital in Alexandria. Florence saw that nurses and hospitals could be much better than they were in England. In 1851, her parents finally gave her permission to study nursing. She went to the Institution of Protestant Deaconesses at Kaiserswerth in Germany for four months training. When she came back to England, a rich friend asked Florence to run a London hospital for ‘Invalid Gentlewomen’. There was no pay, so her father gave her an annual income of £500 (about $65,000 today). This meant she could live comfortably and pursue her career. She made lots of important changes at the hospital. In 1854 Russia invaded Turkey and the Crimean War began.

Britain, France and Turkey fought Russia. Sidney Herbert, the British war minister, asked Florence to supervise a team of 38 nurses at the military hospital in Scutari,Turkey. The hospital was overcrowded and filthy. Soldiers were not washed and lay on the floor because there were not enough beds. They had to eat moldy bread. There were no proper toilets. Drains were blocked. Rats and insects ran everywhere. The smell was terrible. Without good food, clean bandages, clean beds and clean water, many died from diseases. Florence and her nurses greatly improved the conditions and many more soldiers survived. She earned the name “The Lady with the Lamp” because she would visit soldiers at night with a small lantern in her hand. When she returned to England, the Queen presented her with an engraved brooch that is known as the “Nightingale Jewel” and granted her $250,000 from the British government. Florence used the money to start the Nightingale Training School for nurses in London. Trained nurses were sent to hospitals all over Britain. They introduced her ideas and trained others. Florence Nightingale never really recovered from the physical strain of the Crimean War.

She almost never left home, and she stayed in bed much of the time, but she continued to fight for reform of military hospitals and medical care. She died in London, England on August 13, 1910. Quiz Code: Jewel Florence Nightingale - Women’s History - HISTORY.com Florence Nightingale A+E Networks Introduction Florence Nightingale was born in Florence, Italy on May 12, 1820. During the Crimean War, she and a team of nurses improved the unsanitary conditions at a British base hospital, reducing the death count by two-thirds. Her writings sparked worldwide health care reform. In 1860 she established St. Thomas’ Hospital and the Nightingale Training School for Nurses. She died August 13, 1910, in London. Google Early Life Florence Nightingale was born on May 12, 1820, in Florence, Italy. She was the younger of two children. Nightingale’s affluent British family belonged to elite social circles. Her mother, Frances Nightingale, hailed from a family of merchants and took pride in socializing with people of prominent social standing.

Despite her mother’s interest in social climbing, Florence herself was reportedly awkward in social situations. She preferred to avoid being the center of attention whenever possible. Strong-willed, Florence often butted heads with her mother, whom she viewed as overly controlling. Still, like many daughters, she was eager to please her mother. “I think I am got something more good-natured and complying,” Florence wrote in her own defense, concerning the mother-daughter relationship. Florence’s father was William Shore Nightingale, a wealthy landowner who had inherited two estates—one at Lea Hurst, Derbyshire, and the other in Hampshire, Embley Park—when Florence was five years old. Florence was raised on the family estate at Lea Hurst, where her father provided her with a classical education, including studies in German, French and Italian. From a very young age, Florence Nightingale was active in philanthropy, ministering to the ill and poor people in the village neighboring her family’s estate. By the time she was 16 years old, it was clear to her that nursing was her calling. She believed it to be her divine purpose.

When Nightingale approached her parents and told them about her ambitions to become a nurse, they were not pleased. In fact, her parents forbade her to pursue nursing. During the Victorian Era, a young lady of Nightingale’s social stature was expected to marry a man of means—not take up a job that was viewed as lowly menial labor by the upper social classes. When Nightingale was 17 years old, she refused a marriage proposal from a “suitable” gentleman, Richard Monckton Milnes. Nightingale explained her reason for turning him down, saying that while he stimulated her intellectually and romantically, her “moral…active nature…requires satisfaction, and that would not find it in this life.” Determined to pursue her true calling despite her parents’ objections, in 1844, Nightingale enrolled as a nursing student at the Lutheran Hospital of Pastor Fliedner in Kaiserwerth, Germany. Career In the early 1850s, Nightingale returned to London, where she took a nursing job in a Middlesex hospital for ailing governesses.

Her performance there so impressed her employer that Nightingale was promoted to superintendant within just a year of being hired. The position proved challenging as Nightingale grappled with a cholera outbreak and unsanitary conditions conducive to the rapid spread of the disease. Nightingale made it her mission to improve hygiene practices, significantly lowering the death rate at the hospital in the process. The hard work took a toll on her health. She had just barely recovered when the biggest challenge of her nursing career presented itself. In October of 1853, the Crimean War broke out. The British Empire was at war against the Russian Empire for control of the Ottoman Empire. Thousands of British soldiers were sent to the Black Sea, where supplies quickly dwindled. By 1854, no fewer than 18,000 soldiers had been admitted into military hospitals. At the time, there were no female nurses stationed at hospitals in the Crimea. The poor reputation of past female nurses had led the war office to avoid hiring more.

But, after the Battle of Alma, England was in an uproar about the neglect of their ill and injured soldiers, who not only lacked sufficient medical attention due to hospitals being horribly understaffed, but also languished in appallingly unsanitary and inhumane conditions. In late 1854, Nightingale received a letter from Secretary of War Sidney Herbert, asking her to organize a corps of nurses to tend to the sick and fallen soldiers in the Crimea. Nightingale rose to her calling. She quickly assembled a team of 34 nurses from a variety of religious orders, and sailed with them to the Crimea just a few days later. Although they had been warned of the horrid conditions there, nothing could have prepared Nightingale and her nurses for what they saw when they arrived at Scutari, the British base hospital in Constantinople. The hospital sat on top of a large cesspool, which contaminated the water and the hospital building itself. Patients lay on in their own excrement on stretchers strewn throughout the hallways. Rodents and bugs scurried past them. The most basic supplies, such as bandages and soap, grew increasingly scarce as the number of ill and wounded steadily increased.

Even water needed to be rationed. More soldiers were dying from infectious diseases like typhoid and cholera than from injuries incurred in battle. The no-nonsense Nightingale quickly set to work. She procured hundreds of scrub brushes and asked the least infirm patients to scrub the inside of the hospital from floor to ceiling. Nightingale herself spent every waking minute caring for the soldiers. In the evenings she moved through the dark hallways carrying a lamp while making her rounds, ministering to patient after patient. The soldiers, who were both moved and comforted by her endless supply of compassion, took to calling her “the Lady with the Lamp.” Others simply called her “the Angel of the Crimea.” Her work reduced the hospital’s death rate by two-thirds. In additional to vastly improving the sanitary conditions of the hospital, Nightingale created a number of patient services that contributed to improving the quality of their hospital stay. She instituted the creation of an “invalid’s kitchen” where appealing food for patients with special dietary requirements was cooked. She established a laundry so that patients would have clean linens. She also instituted a classroom and a library, for patients’ intellectual stimulation and entertainment.

Based on her observations in the Crimea, Nightingale wrote Notes on Matters Affecting the Health, Efficiency and Hospital Administration of the British Army, an 830-page report analyzing her experience and proposing reforms for other military hospitals operating under poor conditions. The book would spark a total restructuring of the War Office’s administrative department, including the establishment of a Royal Commission for the Health of the Army in 1857. Nightingale remained at Scutari for a year and a half. She left in the summer of 1856, once the Crimean conflict was resolved, and returned to her childhood home at Lea Hurst. To her surprise she was met with a hero’s welcome, which the humble nurse did her best to avoid. The Queen rewarded Nightingale’s work by presenting her with an engraved brooch that came to be known as the “Nightingale Jewel” and by granting her a prize of $250,000 from the British government. Nightingale decided to use the money to further her cause. In 1860, she funded the establishment of St. Thomas’ Hospital, and within it, the Nightingale Training School for Nurses.

Nightingale became a figure of public admiration. Poems, songs and plays were written and dedicated in the heroine’s honor. Young women aspired to be like her. Eager to follow her example, even women from the wealthy upper classes started enrolling at the training school. Thanks to Nightingale, nursing was no longer frowned upon by the upper classes; it had, in fact, come to be viewed as an honorable vocation. Later Life While at Scutari, Nightingale had contracted “Crimean fever” and would never fully recover. By the time she was 38 years old, she was homebound and bedridden, and would be so for the remainder of her life. Fiercely determined, and dedicated as ever to improving health care and alleviating patients’ suffering, Nightingale continued her work from her bed. Residing in Mayfair, she remained an authority and advocate of health care reform, interviewing politicians and welcoming distinguished visitors from her bed. In 1859, she published Notes on Hospitals, which focused on how to properly run civilian hospitals. Throughout the U.S. Civil War, she was frequently consulted about how to best manage field hospitals.

Nightingale also served as an authority on public sanitation issues in India for both the military and civilians, although she had never been to India herself. In 1908, at the age of 88, she was conferred the merit of honor by King Edward. In May of 1910, she received a congratulatory message from King George on her 90th birthday. Death and Legacy In August 1910, Florence Nightingale fell ill, but seemed to recover and was reportedly in good spirits. A week later, on the evening of Friday, August 12, 1910, she developed an array of troubling symptoms. She died unexpectedly at 2 pm the following day, Saturday, August 13, at her home in London. Characteristically, she had expressed the desire that her funeral be a quiet and modest affair, despite the public’s desire to honor Nightingale—who tirelessly devoted her life to preventing disease and ensuring safe and compassionate treatment for the poor and the suffering. Respecting her last wishes, her relatives turned down a national funeral. The “Lady with the Lamp” was laid to rest in a family plot at Westminster Abbey.

The Florence Nightingale Museum, which sits at the site of the original Nightingale Training School for Nurses, houses more than 2,000 artifacts commemorating the life and career of the “Angel of the Crimea.” To this day, Florence Nightingale is broadly acknowledged and revered as the pioneer of modern nursing. Biography courtesty of Bio.com

Question: In which European city was Crimean War nurse Florence Nightingale born?
Answer: Florence