Great Victorians
1 total work
When Florence Nightingale staggered ashore at Scutari with her team of nurses in 1854, she knew she had a tough task ahead: to save the thousands of British soldiers injured in the disastrous Crimean War. But nothing could have prepared her for the horror that awaited her at the barrack hospital - few medicines; no clean water; and rats scuttling over the men as they lay moaning on the filthy floor. Florence worked 22 hours a day for those soldiers, and returned to England a heroine. Not that she cared a jot, she said. She had never wanted fame. In fact, she preferred cats to people.