Recognising Florence Nightingale's contribution to nursing

In 1853, war had broken out in the Crimea between Russia and the Ottoman Empire and by 1854 Britain and France (and later Sardinia) felt compelled to join the conflict because of fears of Russian military expansion in the region.

At the beginning of the Crimean War senior military officers displayed an appalling disregard for the lives of British soldiers. However, unlike previous wars, when the general public were kept in the dark and uninformed about casualties, this was to be the conflict in which war correspondents were allowed to be present. They sent back first-hand accounts of what was happening to their respective newspapers. Through their dispatches they were able to describe to the reading public the dreadful situation of the suffering of the sick and wounded soldiers.

William Howard Russell, who was the war correspondent for The Times newspaper, brought to the attention of the public the inadequate hospital provision for the soldiers, highlighting that ‘the sick have not a bed to lie on’ (Baly, 2002) These and similar dispatches enraged the public, who poured their vitriolic anger on the Minster for War, Sydney Herbert. On 15 October 1854, at the personal request of the War Minister, Florence Nightingale agreed to recruit a cadre of nurses for duty in the war zone. It is a testimony to her logistical skills that within a few days she had managed to enlist a group of 38 volunteers and set sail for Turkey on 21 October 1854.