The Voice of Florence Nightingale

30 Jul 1890

"When I am no longer a memory, just a name, I hope my voice will perpetuate the great work of my life. God bless my dear old comrades of Balaclava and bring them safe to shore."

The video above is the only known recording of the voice of Florence Nightingale, the pioneering nurse and statistician who laid the framework for modern nursing in her 1859 book Notes on Nursing. Nightingale rose to prominence during the Crimean war, whilst serving as a nurse in the British barracks hospital at Scutari (in modern-day Istanbul). It was here that she earned the nickname 'The Lady the Lamp', ascribed due to her nightly rounds of wounded soldiers.

Whilst claims that Nightingale personally decreased mortality rates whilst at the hospital by improving hygiene have since been played down, she was undoubtedly instrumental in establishing the modern principles of nursing. She was also ahead of her time in using mathematics and statistics to encourage reform of hospital conditions, and is credited with inventing the polar area diagram.