Florence Nightingale

Kay Bishop
Redress Editorial Committee

Kay explains why it would be difficult to surpass Florence Nightingale as a woman who left her mark on society. Her lifelong commitment to nursing and the reforms in hygiene now attributed to her confirm Florence Nightingale as a major social reformer of the nineteenth century. Recognition did not come easily. Her mother objected, the male doctors objected and even Queen Victoria questioned her practices.

Most of us are familiar with the story of Florence Nightingale as ‘the lady with the lamp’ who looked after soldiers injured in the Crimean War, but there is so much more to her story.