FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE

Waikato Times, Volume 122, Issue 20498, 14 May 1938, Page 14 (Supplement)

FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE

CELEBRATION OF ANNIVERSARY Thursday was the anniversary of the birth of Florence Nightingale, the reformer of the hospital system. Miss Nightingale was born of wealthy English parents at Florence, in 1823. During the Crimean War, when terrible tidings reached England as to the state of the military hospitals, though herself suffering, she hastened to the relief of the wounded soldiers. On October 27, 1854, she sailed for Scutari, in the service of the War Department, with a band of trained nurses under her. She afterwards proceeded to Balaclava, where she saved thousands from death. Though attacked by Crimean fever, she refused to leave the seat of war, and only returned to England in August, 1856. when the war was ended and the hospitals almost closed. In recognition of her services, tho public raised £50,000 as a testimonial, which was, at her request, chiefly devoted to the extension of St. Thomas’s Hospital. On Sunday evening the nurses of the Waikato Hospital will attend a service in honour of Miss Nightingale’s memory at St. Andrew's Church, Claudelands.