Florence Nightingale: Icon and Iconoclast
R. E. Foster sifts myth from reality in the life of the 'Lady with the Lamp'.
On 11 December 1855, a 189 foot screw-steamer became only the second iron ship to be launched at Hartlepool. The event was chiefly newsworthy, however, because it was named the Florence Nightingale. Barely a year previously her name was virtually unknown. Now, dressed as a nurse, her image appeared full length on the ship’s prow holding cup and handkerchief to minister to ‘a wounded soldier in a recumbent posture, looking with feelings of gratitude towards her by whom his wounds of honour have been attended’. Seldom in British history has the transformation from secular nobody to living saint been so rapid and complete. A century after her death, what are we to make of her?
Cash, Connections ... and Frustration 1820-1854
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