| Florence Nightingale’s greatest achievement was
to raise nursing to the level of a respectable profession for women.
In November 1856, Miss Nightingale took an hotel
room in London which became the centre for the campaign for a Royal
Commission to investigate the health of the British Army. When Sidney
Herbert was appointed chairman, she continued as a driving force
behind the scenes. |
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Florence Nightingale
|
In 1860, with the public subscriptions of the
Nightingale Fund, she established the Nightingale Training School
for nurses at St Thomas’ Hospital. The probationer nurses
received a year’s training which included some lectures but
was mainly practical ward work under the supervision of the ward
sister. ‘Miss Nightingale’, as she was always called
by the nurses, scrutinised the probationers’ ward diaries
and reports.
In 1861, she wrote Notes on Nursing for the
Labouring Classes, a book that gave advice to ordinary working
class people, especially rural poor cottagers, to teach ‘the
art of health, which every mother, girl, mistress, teacher, child’s
nurse, every woman ought practically to learn.’ |
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Westminster from the River
|
At the time of the 1861 census she was living at the Burlington
hotel, 30, Old Burlington street, Westminster, London. With
that information in hand, I set out to look for her census record
in the London 1861 Census CD set from British
Data Archive.
I decided to have a look at the Street Index on CD 20, to see if
I could find Old Burlington street. I searched through the Wesminster
district's street index for Burlington and found Old Burlington
street with the reference Piece 64, folios 107 to 111.
The 1861 London CD set booklet said this piece was on CD 4, so
loading this I clicked on the bookmark 110 and paged down to check
to folio 111b, 30 Old Burlington street was on folio 110b. My search
had finally ended; Florence Nightingale's entry was there in black
and white: |
