Florence Nightingale (1820-1910)
Florence Nightingale was born into wealth and privilege. Unusually, she received a sound education at home, under the supervision of her father. As a young woman she pursued an interest in caring activities and visited institutions to observe nursing.
The Crimean War broke out in 1854, one year after her first appointment as a matron in a nursing home. The war was fully reported in Britain and the conditions endured by the troops roused considerable popular anger.
Florence Nightingale was appointed by the government to take a group of female nurses to the war hospitals in the Crimea. Despite a stormy and difficult experience in the war, Florence Nightingale was popularly acclaimed as a heroine. The Nightingale fund, collected by a grateful nation, was presented to her in 1861 and with it, she founded the Nightingale School of Nursing in St Thomas’ Hospital, London. The scheme of nurse training adopted there served as a model for nurse training worldwide. Ms Nightingale’s book, Notes on Nursing, was published for a lay audience. However, it was used widely in hospitals and at home.
Florence Nightingale has appeared on several international stamps. This selection of stamps comes from Australia, Belgium, Dominica, British Virgin Islands, Hungary (showing the Florence Nightingale medal awarded by the International Red Cross), Germany and the UK. The large set of nursing history stamps showing images of Nightingale was created but never issued by the former Russian Republic of Tartarstan, 1993.
Reference
E.T. Cook, The Life of Florence Nightingale, Volume 1, 1820-1861 (Macmillan and Co., London, 1913).