Florence was born in 1820sintosa wealthy, English family who were, at the time of her birth living in Florence, Italy. She and her sister had all the advantages that money could provide. This included private tutors and a superb education which was not generally available to girls at that time. Florence excelled in Science and Maths; however there was little opportunity for her to use her knowledge. Women of her position in life were expected to get married and arrange all the domestic affairs that were important to wealthy families. But, Florence had a dream to become a nurse and when her father refused to allow her to train as a nurse, she was so upset that she became very ill. Eventually, her father relented and Florence started on her journey. She volunteered to work in hospitals in France and Germany and even travelled to Egypt to have formal training. Nurses were not considered to be important or valuable in those days and hospitals were generally places that only poor people would go to out of desperation. The standards of hygiene and medicine were very low. Florence began to change all that. In every hospital that she worked in she made sure that everything was clean and that the patients themselves were washed and well nourished.
Florence had become well known for all the wonderful improvements that she had made and for the way she had trained other young women to be good nurses. When the British army was fighting in the Crimea against Russia, the soldiers were in desperate need of medical attention. The British commander in the Crimea had heard of Florence and asked her if she would come and help. So Florence collected some of her best nurses and went to the Crimea. Conditions there were terrible. There was no water and no medical equipment. Florence and her team organized a kitchen and a laundry and worked incredibly hard to improve conditions for the injured soldiers. At night she would carry a lamp as she went round the hospital and the soldiers started to call her "the lady with the lamp". They would often kiss her shadow as she passed by. Florence and her team saved thousands of lives and earned the love and admiration of her countrymen and women.
In 1860 Florence started the Nightingale Training School. The Nightingale nurses were in demand all over the world. She advised the American President how to look after his soldiers who were injured in the Civil War. She was a guiding influence behind the founding of the International Red Cross. In 1907, she was honoured by the King of England, Edward V11 and given thesgroupsof Merit. She was the first woman to receive this award. She died at the age of 90 on August 10, 1910. Florence could have lived a life of luxury and comfort. She saw a need for someone to help the poor and the sick and she did everything in her power to improve the situation and to make a change. She thought little of her own comfort and she inspired thousands of young women to become nurses.
