The male army officials initially dismissed the women but as hospital wards began to overflow with patients, the women were set to work. Nightingale was shocked to discover the army hospital was overcrowded, unhygienic, and lacking in basic supplies such as medicine, food, and water. It was the first time women were allowed to officially serve in the army. She organised 38 volunteer nurses and sailed to a British army hospital in Scutari, Constantinople. In late 1854, Nightingale received a letter from the Secretary at War, Sidney Herbert, asking her to assemble a team of nurses. Soon after, newspapers started to report the terrible conditions of the British army hospitals, where more soldiers were dying from illnesses such as cholera, typhoid, and dysentery than from battle-related injuries. Thousands of British soldiers were deployed when Britain joined in support of the Ottoman Empire in March 1854. In October 1853, the Crimean War broke out. She received a promotion to superintendent within a year. In 1853, she returned to London and took a nursing job in a hospital: the Establishment for Gentlewomen during Illness. She wrote: “Rather, ten times, die in the surf, heralding the way to a new world, than stand idly on the shore.”ĭespite disapproval from her parents, in 1851, Nightingale enrolled as a nursing student at a Lutheran hospital in Kaiserwerth, Germany. Not published until 1928, Cassandra encapsulates Nightingale’s rejection of gender and class roles, her pursuit of philanthropic work, and her hunger for female emancipation. In 1842, when she was just 22 years old, Nightingale wrote the rebellious Cassandra, a scornful text which refuted the constraining conventions placed upon women. This was at odds with the social expectations of affluent Victorian women who were expected to be married off to wealthy men and desire nothing other than marriage, motherhood, and domestic duties – a pressure Nightingale also felt from her family. In 1837, Nightingale believed God had called her to his service and that her divine purpose was nursing. From a young age, Nightingale displayed her philanthropic nature as she assisted ill and deprived people in the local village close to her family’s estate. Her father provided her with a robust, classical education – including philosophy, mathematics, and ancient languages. Her Early Lifeįlorence Nightingale was born in 1820 into an upper-middle-class English family. Nightingale’s work not only made her an international heroine but helped pave the way for modern medicine. Tamara Rojo’s Raymonda reimagines the classic ballet and draws inspiration from Florence Nightingale and the pioneering work of women on the frontline during the Crimean War.
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