Watch: Magic Grandad - Famous People (Florence Nightingale) 1994

One of the children is in hospital. Grandad decides to tell them a story about a different hospital, in a war zone, nearly 150 years ago. He ‘magics’ them to Scutari when Florence Nightingale arrived there and tells them what she did and who she met. Footage from the Florence Nightingale Museum at St Thomas’s Hospital in London shows some of the evidence they have collected about Florence Nightingale and her time.
Florence Nightingale came from a wealthy family, who named her after the Italian city where she was born. Her ambition to become a nurse was opposed by her parents, as nursing was not a respectable occupation for women in the early nineteenth century. Also, at a time when little was known about the spread of disease or the importance of hygiene, hospitals were places where only the truly desperately ill would go.
Florence had to go abroad for her medical training - to Kaiserworth in Germany (1851). She then became superintendent of a hospital for invalid women in London. In 1854, Britain became involved in a war in the Crimea, and Florence took 38 nurses to work in the hospital at Scutari. They arrived to find the most terrible conditions of filth and overcrowding. There were no proper beds or food, and more soldiers were dying of disease than from wounds in battle. Florence succeeded in the mammoth task of reorganising the hospital. Under her supervision, the introduction of cleanliness, good food, and medical attention led to a dramatic reduction in the death rate. She returned home a national heroine, thanks to the reports sent back to The Times, which secured her reputation as ‘The Lady with the Lamp’. This over-sentimental view of Florence persists to the present day and tends to obscure the practical, down-to-earth qualities of her character.
While Florence did indeed carry a lamp through the wards of Scutari, she spent less than two years in the Crimea. It can be argued that it was during the remaining years of her long life, away from public view, that she achieved most. Four years after Florence returned to England, she established a training hospital for nurses at St Thomas’ Hospital. Her personal example proved to be a great influence in raising the status of the profession. She devoted the rest of her life to campaigns for sanitary reform, particularly in army hospitals, and the training of nurses.
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