1820 1910 biography florence memoir nightingale

Florence Nightingale is a very familiar name, but in my 70 years of life I’ve never troubled to learn more about her than that she was a pioneering nurse who began her career in the Crimean War, where she came to be known as ‘the lady with the lamp’.

Now that I’ve read this biography, I’m a bit flabbergasted by my own ignorance.

Hers was a life of service and struggle that is nothing less than superhuman.

1820 1910 biography florence memoir nightingale

1820 1910 biography florence memoir nightingale

1820 1910 biography florence memoir nightingale summary

1820 1910 biography florence memoir nightingale meaning

Florence nightingale death

Florence nightingale summary pdf

Her efforts to free herself from the bonds of family duty were protracted and difficult, both because of the vehemence of the family’s resistance to her plans and because her own exacting conscience had to be convinced. When she was at last at liberty to learn the business of nursing, there wasn’t much training to be had.

Four months of medical training in Germany may have been the extent of her formal instruction. She took on the management of a charity that cared for sick gentlewomen, and proved her competence to certain persons with political