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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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Florence Nightingale
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(1820–1910)
The founder of modern nursing. At the time when she decided to train as a nurse, against strong opposition from her respectable family, it was seen as a disreputable profession, linked in the public mind with prostitution. She first proved her organizing abilities in a Harley Street hospital. Then came the reports of *Russell of the Times, calling for 'devoted women' to come and tend the wounded in the *Crimea. At the same time a friend in the cabinet (Sidney Herbert, the secretary of state for war) urged her to go out and take charge.
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The main British military hospital was at Scutari (known today as Uskudar), on the Bosphorus opposite Istanbul. Nightingale arrived there in November 1854 and found the place an insanitary shambles, but by relentless and inspirational hard work she rapidly improved conditions. Her nightly inspection of the wards brought her the name by which she became widely known, the Lady of the Lamp. She was soon a heroine not only to the troops but to people at home, and after the war a public subscription was raised. She used it to found the first professional school of nursing, attached to *St Thomas's Hospital. For the rest of her long life she considered herself an invalid, but the energy which she put into her chosen causes – the well-being of troops in the army and public sanitation, in addition to nursing – suggests that her main complaint was hypochondria. In 1907 she became the first woman to be appointed to the Order of *Merit.
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