Our Nightingale 'Pilgrimage' Continues...

It was like a pilgrimage for us to especially remember Nightingale by visiting perhaps the most famous of all her statues — at London’s Crimean War Memorial.

It was quite a sight to see her standing so tall above us — in the remarkable clear blue sky.  Flanked on all four sides of her statue are detailed bronze-relief depictions of her care and commitment to British and Turkish soldiers, shown here on the left.

We joined the thousands of visitors who come, each year, to appreciate that Nightingale was so greatly valued for her service during that War.  Winston Churchill remembered her for this in his ‘History of the English-Speaking Peoples.’

“With one exception few of the leading figures emerged from the Crimean War with enhanced reputations… [this was] Miss Florence… Nightingale…. With few nurses and scanty equipment, she reduced the death-rate at Scutari from 42 % to 22 per thousand men.

Her influence and example were far-reaching. The Red Cross movement... was the outcome of her work, as were great administrative reforms in civilian hospitals.

In an age of proud and domineering men, she gave the women of the nineteenth century a new status, which revolutionized the social life of the country and even made them want to vote.”
 

Our guide for this ‘pilgrimage’ was our dear friend and colleague the Reverend Tom Keighley, who is also a British nursing leader who now serves as a consultant to the European Union and particularly for the EU’s newest nations, as they prepare their nursing workforce to meet EU health care standards.

Over lunch at the Royal Naval Club, we shared our plans for the Nightingale’s 2020 Bicentenary and received some great suggestions from Tom, who also serves as one of NIGH’s international Advisors.

​All photos for this Blog are from NIGH’s archives and Phalakshi Manjrekar’s camera.