Famous Women of Iran and the World
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Florence Nightingale
Florence Nightingale was both a tough, resourceful woman and a saintly philanthropist; campaigning tirelessly for better conditions in hospitals and tending to sick soldiers at Scutari during the Crimean War of 1854-56. Widely known as "The Lady with the Lamp", she became the greatly-respected, British pioneer of modern nursing.
It was after that fair Italian city of flowers that Florence was named when she was born there to William and Fanny Nightingale on 12th May, 1820. Soon after their daughter's birth, the Nightingales returned to their rambling, English home, Lea Hall, in the tiny village of Lea, Derbyshire. There Florence remained throughout her happy childhood to enjoy a privileged upbringing, playing in the vast house and beautiful, extensive gardens.
Even as a small child, Florence showed traits which denoted her future vocation; watching over her delicate, waxen dolls and frequently declaring a particular
favorite to be ill, then giving strict orders that she must not be disturbed! Not surprisingly, her home-grown skills were often called upon to set and bandage the broken limbs of her careless sister's "children". At just ten years old, Florence demonstrated the caring nature for which she was to become renowned by tending and saving her first "real live patient" - an injured dog destined to be put down as a result of a broken leg.
It was customary for the affluent Nightingale family to pass the summer months in Derbyshire at Lea Hall, and later at their new home, Lea Hurst, and to spend the colder months at Embley House, their country home in Hampshire. Just as in 1838-39, the Nightingales would travel around Europe, often for months at a time in their own, grand stage coach, accompanied by several servants with six horses drawing them to such exotic cities as Nice, Genoa, her birthplace Florence, and Geneva. Eighteen year-old Florence disciplined herself to write accounts of her travels in diaries, observing and noting down the fantasies and harsher realities of life that greeted her along the way.
Flo and her older sister, Parthenope, or Parthe as she liked to be known, grew into young ladies of breeding; busying themselves with reading, music, embroidery and the occasional, discreet visit to a less fortunate family on the estate. Parthe was close to their extrovert mother in character and resented the lessons in languages, philosophy and history imposed upon them and supervised by their cultured father. Flo, on the other hand, already blessed with good looks, grace and wit, had a fertile mind and jointly delighted and excelled in her classical studies.
As she grew older, Florence became more and more appalled by the worthless, narrow lives of many wealthy women, and she upheld a strong conviction that her mission was to become a nurse - much to the disapproval of her parents who had carried high hopes for her as a successful, married hostess, with a country estate and a house in London to her name. They attempted to put a stop to their youngest daughter's ambitions but, although nurses had a bad reputation, widely regarded as drunkards and uneducated layabouts, clearly Florence was not put off. In 1844, believing she had long-since received her "calling", Florence decided she would take up work in hospitals.
So determined was she to live a meaningful life that she turned down offers of marriage and threw herself into studying nursing, secretly but in great detail. The distinguished philanthropist, Mrs. Elizabeth Fry, had done some great work among women prisoners and was a source of inspiration to Florence. It was she who told Florence of the Deaconesses Institute at Kaiserwerth, in Germany, which had been founded for the training of nurses. So, after studying hospital reports on systems and sanitation in Britain and on the Continent, Florence enrolled there, offering her services as a voluntary nurse for three months. At the age of thirty one, she was free, but freedom was short-lived, for Florence was pressured into looking after her ill father on her return to England.
In August of 1853, Florence took her first job as Superintendent at the Institute for the Care of Sick Gentlewomen at Harley Street, London, finally living as a free woman. She took all manner of tasks to hand and transformed the hospital overnight, quickly earning herself a reputation as a specialist in her field. When Britain, France and Turkey declared war on Russia and the war correspondent, William Howard Russell, appealed to English women to volunteer their services at the front line, Florence believed the Crimea was where she would
fulfill her "calling". Applications arrived in droves from women of all classes but the authorities
recognized a lack of organizational and leadership skills amongst them. Sidney Herbert was Secretary at War and, as a personal friend of Florence Nightingale and well-acquainted with her nursing career and abilities, he persuaded his colleagues that she be officially invited to accept the post of superintendent of a British military hospital at Scutari.
Florence and the first contingent of nurses arrived at the Barrack Hospital before the close of 1854, only to be faced with difficulties from the outset - little transport for the wounded and a shortage of food, medical supplies and space in wards filled to bursting point. The situation seemed hopeless and would have reached crisis point had voluntary funds not been raised in time to meet demands. Within ten days of her arrival, Florence had replaced chaos with order and cleanliness and barely a groan left a sick man's lips before a nurse was by his side. She and her staff
labored night and day along the endless corridors and wards, comforting and feeding, and somehow Florence found time to write letters of sympathy or to answer queries from the families of the soldiers she was determined to save.
Personal battles abounded with the small-minded folk back home attacking her religious views; prejudice among the army surgeons against the introduction of women nurses; and red tape which Florence became renowned for defying. Miss Nightingale made herself an enemy of some high-ranking army officials but, undeterred, she overcame such difficulties and, with the help of a letter from Queen Victoria, she strengthened her position at the front and at home.
In May, 1855, having spent some six months at Scutari, Florence toured many of the medical stations in the battle area, riding out in all types of weather. Ironically, having stayed off illness so far, it was whilst she was in Balaclava that she was beset by the Crimean fever. Once on the road to recovery, doctors urged her to return to England, but the heroic lady refused, returning to Scutari where she toiled until the end of the Crimean War. She left her post only after the last soldier had embarked for home.
Back in Britain, people were rejoicing the victorious armies, but it was for Florence that they were determined to hold a heroine's welcome. In her usual fashion, Miss Nightingale declined all offers to make public appearances and refused to accept all gifts in recognition of her services, with the exception of donations to found a hospital in London. Sadly, shortly after her return from the Crimea, Florence's health began to fail her, and so she took the decision to place raised funds in the hands of trustees for the training of girls hoping to follow a career in hospital nursing.
In 1871, Florence saw the opening of the Nightingale Home and Training School - part of the new St. Thomas's Hospital in London and, in her final years, she delighted in supporting the women who followed in her footsteps. In 1907, she received the Order of Merit - an
honor never before bestowed upon a woman. Having suffered comas and blindness, Florence, who outlived her sister and her parents, passed away in her sleep on 13th August, 1910, at the age of ninety. Typically, Florence was buried in a quiet ceremony at East Wellon in Hampshire, with just a small cross marking her grave.
During her fifty-year career, Florence Nightingale gradually turned nursing into a respectable profession and nurses lost their adverse reputations. This legend of the Victorian age threw herself into researching every aspect of hospital care; worked miracles during the Crimean War and became Britain's expert on the subject of nursing. Once a shy, modest woman, Florence took on the military leaders and
government ministers who opposed her reforms with steely determination. So, it is thanks to "The Lady with the Lamp" that hospitals became clean, life-saving institutions and nursing became the respected, skilled profession it is today.
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