360Florence Nightingale
In 60 words
Florence Nightingale was a British nurse who founded modern nursing. In military hospitals during the Crimean War in the 1850s, she cut deaths by insisting on cleanliness, fresh air and good food, and became known as 'the Lady with the Lamp'. She used pioneering charts to persuade officials, and founded a nursing school in London in 1860.
Born in Florence, Italy, on 12 May 1820, she trained as a nurse against her wealthy family's wishes. In 1854 she led a team of nurses to the British army hospital at Scutari, near Istanbul.
She was also a gifted statistician, using diagrams to show that most soldiers died of preventable disease. Her birthday is marked worldwide as International Nurses Day.