Biography Of Florence Nightingale

She was the younger daughter of William Edward Nightingale of Embley Park, Hampshire, and Lea Hurst, Derbyshire, was born at Florence on the 15th of May 1820, and named after that city, but her childhood was spent in England, chiefly in Derbyshire.

Born to a comfortable family, Florence Nightingale was educated by governesses and then by her father, with her older sister, Panthenope. She was familiar with the Greek and Latin classical languages, and modern languages of French, German, and Italian. She also studied history, grammar, philosophy and .mathematics.

By 1844, over parental objections, Florence Nightingale chose a different path than the social life and marriage expected of her by her parents -- she chose to work in nursing, which was then not quite a respectable profession for women. She went to Kaiserwerth, Prussia in 1847, where she received 3 months training in nursing. In 1853 she studied in Paris with Sisters of Charity, after which she return to England to assume the position of superintendent of London's Institution for the Care of Sick Gentlewomen.

In later life Florence Nightingale suffered from poor health and in 1895 went blind. Soon afterwards, the loss of other faculties meant she had to receive full-time nursing. Although a complete invalid she lived another fifteen years before her death in London on 13th August, 1910.