Florence

Florence Nightingale became a living legend as the 'Lady with the Lamp'. She led the nurses caring for thousands of soldiers during the Crimean War and helped save the British army from medicaldisaster.

This was just one of Florence's many achievements. She was also a visionary health reformer, a brilliant campaigner, the most influential woman in Victorian Britain and its Empire, secondonly to Queen Victoria herself.

At the start of Pope Benedict XVI visit to Britain in September 2010, he praised Florence's achievements in his Holyroodhouse speech. "We find many examples of thisforce for good throughout Britain’s long history." "Inspired by faith, women like Florence Nightingale served the poor and the sick and set new standards in healthcare that were subsequently copiedeverywhere."

When she died in 1910, aged 90, she was famous around the world. But who was the real Florence Nightingale?

Florence Nightingale was born in Italy on 12th May 1820. Despite oppositionfrom her family she decided to devote her life to nursing and campaigning for better health care and sanitation for all. It was her work during the Crimean War that created the legend of the Ladywith the Lamp and it was her experience here that drove her to continue, researching, writing and tirelessly campaigning.

After the Crimean War she demanded a Royal Commission into the MilitaryHospitals and the health of the Army, she began investigating the health and sanitation in the British Army in India, and the local population. Money which had been sent by the general public to thank herfor her work in the Crimea was used to establish the first organised, training school for nurses, the Nightingale Training School at St Thomas’ Hospital.

Her greatest achievement was to makenursing a respectable profession for women. Florence's writings on hospital planning and organization had a profound effect in England and across the world, publishing over 200 books, reports and...