Who
was She? Founder
of Nursing Movement.
Date and Place
of Birth:
12th May 1820, Villa Colombaia, near the Porta
Romana, Florence, Italy.
Family Background:
Second daughter of wealthy parents, William Edward
Shore (He adopted the name Nightingale to get
his inheritance) and Frances Smith, wealthy daughter
of a Unitarian family and Liberal politician.
Education: Taught
at home by her father who was Cambridge University
educated.
Chronology:
1821: The Nightingale
family return to England from Italy. They settle
in her father's Derbyshire property which has
a lead smelting works in the grounds which her
father manages. Their father has another property
called Lea Hurst built in the nearby village of
Lea which is to serve as their summer house for
the rest of Florence's life.
1823: Family move
to Keynsham Court in Presteigne, Herefordshire
1825: Family move
to Embley Park in Wellow, Hampshire.
1837: Florence states
that God has called her to his service but at
this time she is not fully aware what that service
will be. Family travel to Europe in September
and she meets Mary Clarke in Paris.
1839: (April) Family
returns to England (June) Florence and her Cousins
are presented to Queen Victoria at her Birthday
Party. (September) Family move back to the renovated
Embley Park.
1842: Meets Richard
Monckton Milnes.
1844: Florence asks
Doctor Howe if it would be acceptable to devote
herself to charitable works in hospitals like
the Catholic nuns. She refuses a proposal of marriage
from m her Cousin Henry Nicholson.
1845: Florence wants
to train in the nearby Salisbury hospital but
her parents are horrified as this is not a respectable
job for a well brought up lady.
1846: She begins
to train herself about hospitals from the Government
Blue Books.
1847: Richard Monckton
Miles wants to marry her but as she is verging
on a nervous breakdown she travels to Rome with
friends.
1848: She attends
the opening of Sidney Herbert's Charmouth convalescent
home and at last her knowledge is recognised.
1849: She finally
refuses Milnes proposal of marriage. (December)
She accompanies her friends the Bracebridges on
a trip down the Nile in Egypt.
1850: They then continue
on a trip through Europe. In July she visits the
Kaiserwerth Institution on the Rhine. Pastor Theodore
Fliedner asks her to write a pamphlet about Kaiserwerth.
1851: She begins
to study at Kaiserwerth.
1853: Her father
gives her an allowance of £500 to continue her
studies and she opens a nursing establishment
of her own for "Gentlewomen".
1854: Beginning of
the Crimean War. Sidney Herbert as Secretary of
State for War asks her to nurse British soldiers.
She takes a party of thirty eight nurses to the
Barrack Hospital in Scutari, near Constantinople
in Turkey. She is surprised by the lack of facilities
and despair of the doctors but decides to try
and lift spirits. She becomes a heroine to the
troops and songs and poems are written about her.
1855: A public subscription
is raised in Britain to assist her work. She becomes
ill with Crimean fever.
1856: As the War
is over Florence returns home to Lea Hurst. She
is invited by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert
to talk to them about her war experiences.
1857: The Government
decide to form a Royal Commission to look into
the disasters of the Crimean War. As women were
not allowed to sit on such a commission she writes
a submission to send to them. The Sepoy Rebellion
in India draws her attention to the problems of
sanitation. She is now ill with what would nowadays
be called posttraumatic stress disorder and she
becomes bedridden only seeing visitors one at
a time and never appearing in public. She is proposed
to by Sir Harry Verney but declines so Sir Harry
marries her sister Parthenope instead.
1859: She publishes
a small book called "Notes on Nursing."
1860: The Nightingale
Training School for nurses is opened at St. Thomas's
Infirmary with Mrs Sarah Wardroper as its head.
Florence is now living in a flat in London and
as close attention to this project. She becomes
the first woman to be elected a Fellow of the
Statistical Society for using statistics and graphs
in nursing.
1861: She is asked
for advice on nursing by the Union forces in the
American Civil War.
1862: She publishes
her "Observations" about sanitation
conditions on India.
1864: She works on
segregating men women and insane patients of the
poor.
1865: (October) She
moves to Number 35 (now 10) South Street, Mayfair,
London where she remains for the rest of her life.
1867: She works principally
on rural hygiene and Indian sanitation.
1871: Publishes "Notes
on Lying in Hospital".
1872: The founder
of the Red Cross Henri Dunant claims Nightingale's
ideas influenced him.
1874: (January) Death
of her father.
1880: (February)
Death of her mother.
1883: Queen Victoria
awards her the Royal Red Cross.
1885: Begins to nurse
her sister Parthenope.
1887: Founding of
the British Nurses Association.
1890: Death of her
sister. Florence's voice is recorded by the Eddison
Company on a cylinder.
1896: She is now
permanently confined to her bedroom.
1902: As she can
now no longer read or write she take son a secretary/housekeeper.
1907: Receives the
Order of Merit from King Edward the Seventh, the
first time it is given to a woman.
1910: She is no longer
capable of speaking.
Written Works:
-
1859: "Notes
on Nursing."
-
1862: "Observations"
-
1871: "Notes
on Lying in Hospital".
Marriage: Never
married though proposed to twice. She felt marriage
would not allow her to carry out her work.
Places of Interest:
DERBYSHIRE:
Lea
Hurst, Matlock (now a Royal Surgical Aid Society
Home).
HAMPSHIRE:
Embley
Park, Romsey. (now a School)
LONDON:
Florence Nightingale Museum, 2 Lambeth Palace
Road.
Claydon House (National Trust). (Home of her sister
and brother in law).
The Old Operating Theatre Museum and Herb Garden,
Southwark.
Date and Place
of Death:
13th
August 1910, London, England.
Age at Death:
90.
Site of Grave:
St.
Margaret's Churchyard, East Wellow, Hampshire,
England
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