Letter from Florence Nightingale, May 1856

Letter from Florence Nightingale, May 1856. Letter from English nurse and hospital reformer Florence Nightingale (1820-1910) to a Mrs Clark informing her ofthe death of her brother, Samuel Clark, a soldier under Nightingale's care at the Castle Hospital in Balaclava during the Crimean war (1854-1856). The letter says that he enjoyed arrowroot and milk which he was given every night, that Nightingale is enclosing two letters that he wrote, and that she will send on his bible and prayer book. Nightingale devoted her life to the sick and suffering. She volunteered for duty in the Crimean War and whilst at the hospital barracks at Scutari, drastically reduced the mortality rate by imposing a strict discipline and high standards of sanitation. In 1859, she wrote 'Notes on Nursing', and in 1861 she founded St Thomas' School of Nursing in London. ©SSPL/Science Museum