The true story of the three statues of Nightingale
Three statues. One secret. Now, 169 years after it happened, the true story of the statues can be revealed – here is the truth behind the statues.
A statue of Florence Nightingale by the 20th century war memorialist Arthur George
Walker stands in Waterloo Place, Westminster, London, just off The Mall. There are
three statues of Nightingale in Derby.
One is outside the Derbyshire Royal Infirmary, one in St Peter’s Street, and one above the Nightingale-Macmillan Continuing Care Unit opposite the Derbyshire Royal Infirmary.
A pub named after her stands close to the DRI.[102] The Nightingale-Macmillan continuing care unit is now at the Royal Derby Hospital, formerly known as The City Hospital, Derby.
– Ms Smith
A stained glass window
A stained window was commissioned for inclusion in the DRI chapel in the late
1950s. When the chapel was demolished the window was removed and installed in
the replacement chapel. At the closure of the DRI the window was again removed
and stored.
In October 2010, £6,000 was raised to reposition the window in St Peter’s
Church, Derby. The work features nine panels, of the original ten, depicting scenes of
hospital life, Derby townscapes and Nightingale herself. Some of the work was
damaged and the tenth panel was dismantled for the glass to be used in repair of the
remaining panels.
“All the figures, who are said to be modelled on prominent Derby
town figures of the early sixties, surround and praise a central pane of the triumphant
Christ. A nurse who posed for the top right panel in 1959 attended the rededication
service in October 2010,” Ms Smith says.
The Florence Nightingale Museum at St Thomas’ Hospital in London reopened in
May 2010 in time for the centenary of Nightingale’s death.[42] Another museum
devoted to her is at her sister’s family home, Claydon House, now a property of the
National Trust.
“Upon the centenary of Nightingale’s death in 2010, and to commemorate her
connection with Malvern, the Malvern Museum held a Florence Nightingale
exhibit with a school poster competition to promote some events,” professor Kristiansson exaplains.
In Istanbul, the northernmost tower of the Selimiye Barracks building is now the
Florence Nightingale Museum, and in several of its rooms, relics and
reproductions related to Florence Nightingale and her nurses are on exhibition.
When Nightingale moved on to the Crimea itself in May 1855, she often travelled on
horseback to make hospital inspections. She later transferred to a mule cart and was
reported to have escaped serious injury when the cart was toppled in an accident.
Following this, she used a solid Russian-built carriage, with a waterproof hood and
curtains. The carriage was returned to England by Alexis Soyer after the war and
subsequently given to the Nightingale training school. The carriage was damaged
when the hospital was bombed during the Second World War. It was restored and
transferred to the Army Medical Services Museum, now in Mytchett, Surrey, near
Aldershot.