Where was “Florence Nightingale” born and why was she so famous?
Florence Nightingale, OM, RRC 12 May 1820 – 13 August 1910 She came to be known as “The Lady with the Lamp”,and was a pioneering nurse, writer and noted statistician. She wanted to become a nurse. Her parents were totally opposed to the idea as nursing was associated with working class women. Florence’s desire to have a career in medicine was reinforced when she met Elizabeth Blackwell at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital in London. Blackwell was the first woman to qualify as a doctor in the United States. Blackwell, who had to overcome considerable prejudice to achieve her ambition, encouraged her to keep trying and in 1851 Florence’s father gave her permission to train as a nurse. Florence, now thirty-one, went to Kaiserwerth, Germany where she studied to become a nurse at the Institute of Protestant Deaconesses. Two years later she was appointed resident lady superintendent of a hospital for invalid women in Harley Street, London. In March, 1853, Russia invaded Turkey. Britain and France,
