Ten fun facts about Florence Nightingale
Fact 1
She became famous while serving as a nurse during the Crimean War, where she tended to wounded soldiers.
Fact 2
She was dubbed "The Lady with the Lamp" after her habit of making rounds at night.
Fact 3
Nightingale laid the foundation of professional nursing with the establishment of her nursing school at St Thomas' Hospital in London. It was the first secular nursing school in the world, which is now part of King's College London.
Fact 4
The Nightingale Pledge taken by new nurses was named in her honor, and the annual International Nurses Day is celebrated around the world on her birthday.
Fact 5
Her social reforms include improving healthcare for all sections of British society, improving healthcare and advocating for better hunger relief in India, helping to abolish laws regulating prostitution that were overly harsh to women, and expanding the acceptable forms of female participation in the workforce.
Fact 6
Nightingale was a prodigious and versatile writer. In her lifetime much of her published work was concerned with spreading medical knowledge.
Fact 7
From a very young age, Nightingale was active in philanthropy, ministering to the ill and poor people in the village neighboring her family’s estate.
Fact 8
Her mother was called Fanny and her father was called William. Florence also had an older sister called Parthenope. They were a very wealthy family.
Fact 9
Nightingale was awarded the Royal Red Cross (from Queen Victoria) and the Order of Merit in 1907 (from King Edward VII). This was the first time the Order of Merit had been awarded to a woman.
Fact 10
Nightingale was a little bit of a crazy cat lady. It is reported that over her lifetime Nightingale owned over 60 felines. It is documented that at one time she owned 17 at once.
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