Florence Nightingale

Nightingale, Florence (1820–1910), English founder of modern nursing, known as the “Lady with the Lamp” because she worked night and day during the Crimean War (1954), establishing sanitary methods and discipline in 2 huge army hospitals. In 1860 she set up a nurses' training school in London. She was the first woman to be awarded the British Order of Merit (1907).

See also: Crimean War; Nursing.