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FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE. Born in 1820 - Died in 1910.
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FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE Born in 1820 - Died in 1910
Florence Nightingale was the daughter of a well-to-do family in England. They wanted her to become a socialite * ; to learn to give big parties and serve tea. Florence, however, had other plans. When she told them she didn't want this kind of life, her parents became very angry and her sister went into hysterics *
By the time she was 12, she was determined to "do something worthwhile". She liked books. She enjoyed caring for sick farmers on her father's estate. Once she even saved the life of an old shepherd's dog that had broken its leg. At the age of 16, she was sure that God was calling her to serve others. She used every spare minute to learn from nursing books she had secretly obtained. She visited hospitals in London and the surrounding area. Her parents didn't want her working in those "dirty" hospitals, but she was determined. They did many things to try to change her mind. Her sister pretended to have fainting spells. Her mother accused her of being immoral * .
She finally reached an agreement with her father. If he would let her go to Kaiserwerth (KI zer wirth) hospital in Germany to study, she wouldn't tell anyone her plans. This way, her family wouldn't have to be "embarrassed" * by her actions.She was an excellent student, and after her graduation, she returned to London and got a job running a hospital.
During the Crimean (cry ME un) War, she was put in charge of nursing. She went to the battlefield with 38 nurses. The hospital was a huge, dirty barracks * building. She got men to clean it up and managed to get the supplies they needed. She carried a lamp as she walked the halls of the battlefield hospital and became known as the "lady with the lamp".
She saved thousands of lives. People called her a ministering angel in the hospitals, but she herself became ill with a disease she got there.In her later years she was not able to travel, but people came to her from all over the world for her advice.During the Civil War, the United States asked her advice about setting up military hospitals.She became known as the founder * of modern nursing.
1788 Frances Smith ("Fanny"), FN's mother born. She is one of ten children born to an active liberal politician. The parents were Unitarians and fabulously wealthy. Frances said of her and her siblings that they never worked a day in their lives and just played and had fun. They all lived to be very old.
1794 William Edward Shore ("W.E.N."), FN's father born. He assumed the name Nightingale to get his inheritance.
1798 Mary Shore, FN's aunt "Mai" (pronounced "my"), born. She marries Fanny's brother Mr. Samuel Smith. Their son, William Shore Smith (whom FN called "my boy Shore"), was the heir, after his mother, to the entailed land at Embley and Lea Hurst, in default of a son to Mr. Nightingale.
1820 May 12, FN born in Florence (Firenze), Italy, in the Villa Colombaia, near the Porta Romana.
1821 The Nightingale family returns to England and tries to settle down in W.E.N.'s inherited property in Derbyshire. The Derby county property had an active lead smelter (1760-1935) which W.E.N. managed and owned. W.E.N. had a new house built for the family in the village of Lea and the the family lived there until 1823. The home was called Lea Hurst and served as a summer home to the Nightingales for the rest of FN's life.
1825 The Nightingales move to a mansion named Embley Park in the parish of Wellow, in Hampshire. This is the site of FN's grave. This becomes the family's main home with Lea Hurst as a summer home. W.E.N. begins to seriously educate the girls himself.1837 February 7, God spoke to her at Embley; "God called her to His service" but she is not clear on how to "serve" Him.September, the family travels to Europe while Embley is being remodeled. She meets Mary Clarke ("Clarkey") in Paris.
1845 FN wants to work and train at Salisbury Infirmary nearby. Because of the reputation of nursing in that day, Mama and Parthe are horrified. A cultured lady of that day did not enter in hospital work."To be a good nurse one must be a good woman, or one is truly nothing but a tinkling bell."1846 Lord Ashley tells her about the government reports called Blue Books. She starts to become a self-taught expert on hospitals and sanitation.1847 Spring, Richard Monckton Milnes wants her to marry him. She is approaching a mental breakdown. Selina (" ") and Charles Bracebridge take her to Rome with them. She meets Elizabeth ("Liz") and Sidney Herbert.1848 FN attends the opening of Sidney Herbert's Charmouth convalescent home and her expertise is recognized.
1849 After seven years of waiting, Milnes is given a final answer of no to his proposal of marriage. After much agonizing, she concludes that she could not have "work" of her own if she chooses to follow her heart into this society marriage. Marriage would destroy her chance of serving God's call.1849 December, she accompanies the Bracebridges on a trip down the Nile in Egypt and Greece. She is near breakdown.
1851 From July 6-October 7 she is again at Kaiserswerth not as a guest but as a probationer (student). As a probationer she writes her Curriculum Vitae where she talks about her sickly childhood (something she shared with Milnes) and weak wrists. She never returns home to live.1853 Her father gives her a yearly allowance of 500 pounds ($40-50,000 by today's standards).FN writes "Cassandra"March, God again spoke to FN and "asked me (FN) would I do good for him alone without the reputation." She decides to serve Him by serving the "sick poor."FN went into residence in her first "situation" as superintendent of An Establishment for Gentlewomen During Illness at no. 1 Upper Harley Street, from August 12, 1853 to October, 1854.
1854 England, France and Sardinia come to the aid of Turkey against Russia: The Crimean War.God speaks again to FN.October: through the first war correspondents, the public learns of needs of wounded soldiers. Sidney Herbert, as Secretary at War, asks her to go nurse British soldiers. She assembles a party of 38 nurses, makes them sign contracts, gives them uniforms, and goes to Turkey to the Barrack Hospital. This is her opportunity, her grand experiment, to show the value of female nurses in military hospitals. Assured of abundant supplies and splendid facilities, her nurses walk into horror. There is nothing. Doctors' resistance is broken down by the sheer enormity of the calamity. The day after they arrive, the Hospital begins receiving the wounded from the Battle of Inkerman. Flo emerges a heroine to the troops and public back home. She is the subject of songs and poems.
The party that went with Miss Nightingale to Turkey to nurse the wounded and sick English soldiers had 38 women. Of those 38 one was FN herself; one was Mrs. Clarke who was a "housekeeper" for Miss Nightingale; one group was Catholic nuns from the Bermondsey Convent in London wearing black habits; one group was Catholic nuns from an orphanage in Norwood wearing white habits; one group were from Miss Sellon's order of "sisters" called "Sellonites"; they wore black habits. The rest were hospital nurses wearing the one-size-fits-all uniform designed by Miss Nightingale for the trip. The civilian nurses got paid by the government but the religious "sisters" did not get paid. Their expenses were paid by their "church" or "order." The sisters had almost no experience at nursing at all.
A poem from the famous English satirical magazine Punch published during the time of the Crimean War, 1854-1856, when Miss Florence Nightingale and her nurses were nursing English Soldiers for the first time in English history. Since this poem is 150 years old, the language, the punctuation, and the spelling may be unfamiliar; you may need to use a dictionary.
The Nightingale's Song to the Sick Soldier Listen, soldier, to the tale of the tender nightingale,'Tis a charm that soon will ease your wounds so cruel,Singing medicine for your pain, in a sympathetic strain,With a jug, jug, jug of lemonade or gruel. Singing bandages and lint; salve and cerate without stint,Singing plenty both of liniment and lotion,And your mixtures pushed about, and the pills for you served out,With alacrity and promptitude of motion. Singing light and gentle hands, and a nurse who understandsHow to manage every sort of application,From a poultice to a leech; whom you haven't got to teachThe way to make a poppy fomentation.
Singing pillow for you, smoothed; smart and ache and anguish smoothed,By the readiness of feminine invention;Singing fever's thirst allayed, and the bed you've tumbled made,With a cheerful and considerate attention. Singing succour to the brave, and a rescue from the grave,Hear the nightingale that's come to the Crimea,'Tis a nightingale as strong in her heart as in her song,To carry out so gallant an idea.
The graveyard near the Hospital The Barrack Hospital today
The famous poem in which Henry Wadsworth Longfellow coins the term "lady with the lamp." Saint Philomena is a patron of the sick. Santa Filomena Whene'er a noble deed is wrought,Whene'er is spoken a noble thought, Our hearts, in glad surprise, To higher levels rise. The tidal wave of deeper soulsInto our inmost being rolls, And lifts us unawares Out of all meaner cares. Honor to those whose words or deedsThus help us in our daily needs, And by their overflow Raise us from what is low!
Thus thought I, as by night I readOf the great army of the dead, The trenches cold and damp, The starved and frozen camp,-- The wounded from the battle-plain,In dreary hospitals of pain, The cheerless corridors, The cold and stony floors. Lo! in that house of miseryA lady with a lamp I see Pass through the glimmering gloom, And flit from room to room.
And slow, as in a dream of bliss,The speechless sufferer turns to kiss Her shadow, as it falls Upon the darkening walls. As if a door in heaven should beOpened and then closed suddenly, The vision came and went, The light shone and was spent. On England's annals, through the longHereafter of her speech and song, That light its rays shall cast From portals of the past.
A Lady with a Lamp shall standIn the great history of the land, A noble type of good, Heroic womanhood. Nor even shall be wanting hereThe palm, the lily, and the spear, The symbols that of yore Saint Filomena bore. A seven-inch ceramic statuette of Nightingale. Her hand rests on a column bearing a stack of books, to show her scholarly nature
1855 FN becomes ill with Crimean Fever (brucellosis?)1856 July, the war is over, the last patients and nurses leave. Florence goes home to Lea Hurst. She is given many gifts and thank you letters for her service in the Crimean.Upon request she visits Queen Victoria and Prince Albert to talk about her war experiences. They agree upon a need to correct wrongs.
This is the beginning of her illness, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). After this period (of collecting facts for the commission) she is reclusive, mostly bed ridden and only sees people by appointment, one at a time. After her return from the Crimean War she never made a public appearance, never attended a public function, never issued a public statement.
1859 She publishes a small booklet titled "Notes on Nursing." It is very popular. It is expanded and published again in 1860 and in 1861 with special section on taking care of babies. This book sold millions all over the world: the only "wage" she ever earned in her life was her royalties from this book.
1860 June 24, The Nightingale Training School for nurses opens at St. Thomas Infirmary with Mrs. Wardroper as its head. FN pays very close attention to every detail from her flat in London. The school is a success. Florence almost single-handedly invents modern nursing as we know it today, and creates a new image of female nurses as a professional class.
The Order of Merit is a British honorary institution founded by Edward VII in 1902 to reward those who provided especially eminent service in the armed forces or particularly distinguished themselves in science, art, literature, or the promotion of culture. The order is limited to only 24 members, although the British monarch can appoint foreigners as "honorary members." The order carries no title of knighthood, but a member is entitled to add "O.M." after his name. It has a civilian and a military division. Both men and women are admitted into the order; Florence Nightingale was the first woman awarded the honour (1907), and not another woman received the order until the induction of Dorothy Hodgkin in 1965. The badge of the order portrays a crown with the motto "For Merit." An Indian Order of Merit (no longer in existence) was established in 1837.
1861 August 2, Sidney Herbert dies.God speaks for the fourth and last time to FN.Army officials in America ask her advice on care of sick and wounded in the U.S. Civil War. She sends information to the Secretary of War and Dorothea Dix, Superintendent of Nurses for Union forces. When it looks as though England may get involved she helps the English get ready. By Christmas she is becomes very ill and it is feared she will die. She could not walk and for the next six years had to be carried from room to room. She continues to work.
1865 October, FN moves to No. 35 South Street, London, later to be known as No. 10 South Street, where she lives for the rest of her life. 1907 November, King Edward VII bestows the Order of Merit on FN; it is the first time that the Order is given to a woman.1910 From Cecil Woodham Smith: "After February, 1910 she no longer spoke.The end came on August 13, 1910. She fell asleep about noon and did not wake again.In her funeral her coffin was carried by six sergeants of the British Army. Burial in Westminster Abbey was declined; she was buried in the family grave at East Wellow. Her only memorial is a line on the family tombstone "F. N. Born 1820. Died 1910." She had lived for ninety years and three months.
The Nightingale Memorial in Derby. FN's grave on the grounds at East Wellow
This photo was taken on such a day with an older Miss Nightingale and Sir Harry Verney, who was active in the school and the Nightingale Fund which supported the school independent of the hospital.
