History: 5 fast facts about Florence Nightingale
The (lesser-known) low-down on the Lady with the Lamp
Florence’s parents named her after the city of her birth, a lovely reminder of their three-year-long honeymoon around Italy but perhaps a little unfortunate for her sister, Parthenope.
Flo’s upper-class family were non-too thrilled by what she believed was her ‘calling’ to become a nurse, which at the time was associated with low social status, alcoholism and prostitution.