2010 Centenary Year

2010 Centenary Year

2010 marks the centenary of Florence Nightingale’s death on 13 August 1910. Her fame as “the Lady with the Lamp” was undiminished. She rejected the offer of a public funeral at Westminster Cathedral but nonetheless, her funeral cortege drove through central London, passed Buckingham Palace where the sentries presented arms and the guards stood to attention at Waterloo Station from where her plain oak coffin was taken to Romsey in Hampshire for burial beside her parents.

The Reverend Tom Keighly recently described Florence Nightingale as “a woman for the 21st century”. And, during the course of this year, many have shared those sentiments. Events have been held across the world to mark the occasion and to reflect on her remarkable life and legacy. Here are some of the highlights:

CENTENARY STAMPS

To celebrate the centenary of Florence’s death, students at Hampshire Collegiate School at Embley Park have designed a set of commemorative postage stamps. The stamps feature images of Florence at her family home, Embley in Hampshire, along with the Turkish lantern (or fanoos) as the franking mark. It’s beams of light make a pie-chart, reflecting Florence’s “coxcombs” – the statistical charts she compiled to show the predominance of disease as a cause of mortality in the British Army during the Crimean War.
The project has been mastermined by by their tutor, Ross Watson.

FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE FELLOWSHIP

On Saturday 15 May 2010, the Archbishop of Canterbury spoke at a special service marking the centenary for members of the Fellowship. His sermon is available to read and listen to here:

http://archbishopofcanterbury.org/2899

BBC RADIO 4 SUNDAY WORSHIP

On Sunday 8 August, the Nightingale Choir from the Florence Nightingale School of Nursing & Midwifery, King’s College London, perfomed live with the Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust (GSTT) Staff Choir at St Thomas’ Chapel as part of BBC Radio 4’s ‘Sunday Worship’. The service was led by Reverend Mia Holborn, Chaplain of Guy’s and St Thomas’ and featured an address by the Reverence Tom Keighley, Fellow of the Florence Nightingale Foundation. If you missed the programme you can listen again online at:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00t83lc

INTERNATIONAL NURSING CONFERENCE

In September Kingston and St George's, University of London hosted one of the largest international conferences on the history of nursing, marking the centenary of Florence Nightingale's death.
The three-day event showcased innovative and scholarly work on nursing history and was attended by more than 300 nurses, midwives and other healthcare professionals, historians and experts from around the world.

Find out more about the conference and to listen to the keynote presentation by Mark Bostridge, author of 'Florence Nightingale: The Woman and Her Legend' click here.

To celebrate centenary year the Nursing Standard ran a prize draw to win a silver Nightingale watch made by Jessica Gill. The winner was Moira who wrote:

“I am absolutely ecstatic about this prize as it’s the first prize draw I have ever entered, and I did because I admire Florence Nightingale and have collected a few things because it’s her centennial year.

It’s such an honour and privilege to receive such a prize and its historical significance for me is priceless.

I have been nursing since 1981 with a break to have children, but over 23 years all told.

Florence Nightingale to me is my heroine, although things were far from perfect, the lady with the lamp set precedence and many eminent nurses have followed on to continue and improve on her philosophy.  Although I may not be remembered for great changes in nursing, what I have learnt from reading Florence Nightingales life story

Is that you have to make the best of the resources available at the time, and they were pretty horrific circumstances they nursed under.

I am proud that although silently I have made my own contribution, and I know I have made a difference for some of my patients along the way.

I am hoping to go to the museum for the first time this year and I will wear the watch with pride when I go.

I am going to show the watch to colleagues at the hospital where I work in the hope that it will inspire them and remember the lady with the lamp. The reason why we are all here.

As you can tell I am completely overwhelmed by this, such an amazing prize of an amazing Lady. This has made my nursing career so worth while.

Thank you so much.”

http://nursingstandard.rcnpublishing.co.uk/

http://www.jessicagill.net/orignightwatch/orignightwatch.html