She was born into a rich, upper-class family in 1820, in Italy. She got her name Florence after the city of her birth, as there was a tradition in her family to name the children in honour of the city they were born in. She got an all-round education and according to the family’s status Florence was expected to become a faithful wife and attentive mother.
However, in 1844 Florence decided to become a nurse, despite the intense anger and distress of her mother and sister. At that time nursing was seen as a job that needed neither education nor special medical skills.
In 1854 the Crimean War broke out and Florence Nightingale offered her services to the War Office and soon left for the Crimea with thirty-eight volunteer nurses. They began their work in the main British camp, in the hospital. Very soon Florence found out that hygiene was neglected, and fatal infections were common. There was no equipment to cook proper food for the patients. Florence decided to change the situation.
Nightingale managed to found a vast kitchen and a laundry. In addition to her nursing work, she tried to organize reading and recreation rooms for the wounded soldiers. She was on her feet for twenty hours a day and so were the other nurses. Florence was called ‘The Lady with the Lamp’ for her habit of making rounds round the hospital at night. She checked on her helpless patients.
Florence remained in the Crimea until 1856, then she returned to England.
In London Florence Nightingale visited Queen Victoria and persuaded the Queen of the need to create a military hospital system. Soon Florence Nightingale set up a training school for nurses, the first nursing school in the world.It is now called The Florence Nightingale School of Nursing and Midwifery and is part of King's College in London.The annual International Nurses Day is celebrated around the world on Florence’s birthday, the 12th of May.
In the Crimea camp, Nightingale got ‘Crimean fever’ and never fully recovered. By the time she was 38 years old, she was seriously ill. She left her house very rarely and had to stay in bed most of the time. Nevertheless, Florence continued her work from her bed. She wrote many books, some of them became the base of the curriculum at the Nightingale School and other British nursing schools.
Florence Nightingale died in London in 1910, at the age of ninety. The government offered to bury Florence in Westminster Abbey, but her relatives did not agree. However, the memorial service took place in St. Paul's Cathedral.
Florence Nightingale received a lot of honorable awards. Several books were written about the life of ‘The Lady with the Lamp’ and a few films were shot about her.