Post by Mohamud A. Verjee BSc(Hons), MBChB, DRCOG, MBA, CCFP, FCFP

Florence Nightingale (1820-1910) was a British nurse and social reformer. She was a precocious child intellectually. Her father took particular interest in her education, guiding her through history, philosophy, and literature. She excelled in mathematics and languages and could read and write French, German, Italian, Greek, and Latin at an early age. Florence, the founder of modern nursing, was born in Italy and named after the city of her birth. She has frequently been described as “the lady with the lamp,” and this quote relates to an article published about her in The Times newspaper on 8th February 1855, which reads: “She is a ‘ministering angel’ without any exaggeration in these hospitals (...) When all the medical officers have retired for the night, and silence and darkness have settled down upon these miles of prostrate sick, she may be observed alone, with a little lamp in her hand, making her solitary rounds.” She came to prominence while serving as a manager and trainer of nurses during the Crimean War, in which she organized care for wounded soldiers at Constantinople. Dedicating herself to a lifetime of nursing, she never married. Source: National Archives UK plus research by author.