Hayden Gill 27/3/14

Florence Nightingale was born on the 12

th
of March 1820 in Florence, Italy. She is best known for her work
she did to help the wounded English soldiers during the Crimean War, and making a big contribution in the
way hospitals are run.
There were four people in the extremely wealthy Nightingale family; her dad William, Mum Frances and
older sister Parthenope.
As the family was well connected with the British the Nightingale family moved to England in 1821, when
Florence was the age of one. Florence was raised in an estate called Lea Hurst. As a child she was always
shy and tried to stay away from attention, however she was active in philanthropy. Florence always helped
the sick and poor as well as comforting them during her childhood.
In 1837, at the age of 16, Florence believed that God was calling her to do some special work for him.
When she was twenty-three Florence noticed the famine and ill people in the villages around her. Yet again
she heard God calling her to become a nurse. Her parents were shocked and extremely angry when she
told her parents that her ambitions were to be a nurse and study at the Salisbury hospital in Germany, as at
the time all nurses came from poor families. However Florence pursued her dream despite her parents
anger.
In 1850, Florence and some of her friends flew to Germany where they were to study to become nurses. A
year later she had received three months of nursing training which had qualified her to become a nurse.
She returned home and was met with all of her family ill, she cared for them from 1851-1853.
In 1853, when she was 33 Florence took a job running a small private hospital in London. After she got a
job her father realised that she was very serious about becoming a nurse and decided to give her 500
pounds every year which was a lot of money in those times.
In 1854, the Crimean War had started against the Russians. A report in the newspaper stated that many
British soldiers were dying because of the low numbers of nurses and doctors. Sidney Herbert, a British
military leader wrote to Florence asking her to assemble a team of nurses and head over to Crimea to help
the nurses in the war.
On the 4
th
of November 1854 Florence and a group of nurses arrived in Crimea. They were met with a
hospital with soldiers in brutal conditions with gun wounds and diseases. At first none of the nurses wanted
to help Florence but because of the amount of soldiers rushing through the doors they soon changed their
mind. The group of nurses in particularly Florence made so many improvements such as, cleaning the
drains, supplying drinking water, filling the hospital with clean bandages while setting up a timetable
ensuring all soldiers were cared for. Florence was becoming very popular and the soldiers started calling
her the lady with the lamp, as she went through the wards every night with a lamp helping all soldiers.
The Crimean war ended in 1856 and her work was done, she sailed back to England where she was
greeted by the Queen! Because of her extreme effort she was rewarded with a jewel now known as the
Nightingale Jewel as well as 25,000 pounds from the British Government!
In 1860 she decided to use her money towards building a new hospital called the St. Thomas hospital and
the Nightingale school for nurses. Now, many young womens role model is Florence Nightingale!
Florence Nightingale is one of the worlds most inspirational people. Would you go to the war helping
soldiers knowing that you could get killed? Well she did which makes her extremely inspirational. She was
a hardworking, loyal human being who never gave up! As Florence Nightingale once said I attribute my
success to this: I never gave or took any excuse.
Hayden 31/3/14