‘She is a ‘ministering angel’ without any exaggeration in these hospitals, and as her slender form glides quietly along each corridor, every poor fellow’s face softens with gratitude at the sight of her. Her family were bombarded with fanmail, and images of the ‘lady with the lamp’ were printed on bags, mats and souvenirs. Her image as ‘the lady with the lamp’ became famous in her lifetimeĭuring the Crimean war, Nightingale became a household name after a portrait of her tending to patients was published in The Times. The Renkioi hospital was the pioneering result. The government commissioned Isambard Kingdom Brunel to design a prefabricated solution. She sent a plea to The Times for a government solution, the British Government sent out a Sanitary Commission, which revealed that the Barrack Hospital was built on a sewer which contaminated the water. Nightingale and her nurses set out to clean the hospital, but the death rates refused to drop. The hospital, based in the old Turkish Selimiye Barracks, was coated in 1 inch of faeces, medicines were in short supply, and their was no equipment to process food for the patients.įar more men died of cholera, dysentery, typhoid and malaria than battle wounds. When she arrived in Scutari, it was clear that the newspaper horror stories were true.Ī ward of the hospital at Scutari where Nightingale worked, from an 1856 lithograph by William Simpson. It was the first time a woman had officially served in the army. Herbert appointed Nightingale to take 38 nurses to the military hospital in Scutari. They had met several years previously, when Herbert was on his honeymoon in Rome. The Secretary of State at War, Sidney Herbert, was a close friend of Nightingale. ![]() Newspapers were awash with horrific reports of the appalling conditions in army hospitals. In 1854, Britain entered the Crimean War. She was sent to Crimea to aid those in the war In 1853, she became a superintendent at the Institute for the Care of Sick Gentlewomen in Upper Harley Street, London. ‘I do not expect that love passages will be frequent in her life.’Īfter years of trying to obstruct their daughters’ wishes to become a nurse, Florence’s parents relented and allowed her to train in Germany. Her mother acknowledged this independence in 1838: Her independence of thought was reflected by her referral to herself in the masculine – she described herself as ‘a man of action’ and ‘a man of business’. ![]() Although she enjoyed a 9 year courtship with Richard Monchton Milnes, she refused his hand in marriage, believing it would frustrate her work in nursing. Her faith in this ‘calling’ obstructed any romantic engagement. In this episode, Dan gets to explore one of his favourite places in all the world - the SS Great Britain - including some areas that are normally off-limits.
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