Florence Nightingale Lady With The Lamp Story In English : Florence Nightingale Children's Story Book In English

Florence Nightingale Life Story:

“The Lady With The Lamp Story”

    A long time ago, in England, there lived a woman called Florence Nightingale. She became very famous as a nurse. She did a lot to help sick people get better.

Florence was born in a good family. She got her name from  the city in Italy where she was born on May 12, 1820. Florence grew up in England. She was taught at home by her father. She learnt English Italian, Latin, German, French, History and Philosophy.

Florence traveled to many countries with her sister and parents. She also wrote lots of notes to herself. One day she wrote, “Today God spoke to me, and called me to His service". She made up her mind to do something useful in life.

Florence wanted to help other people. She wanted to become a nurse. But her parents and her sister did not want her to become a nurse. Her parents hoped to settle her comfortably by getting her married to a rich man.

In those days ladies from 'good' families did not become nurses. They were paid very little money. They got little respect from anybody.

The hospitals in those days were no better. They were very dirty places. The sheets on the beds were never changed, and patients were never washed. The nurses in the hospitals had to sleep in wooden cages outside the doors of the wards.

Florence did not mind all this. She secretly planned to become a nurse. She got her first chance when her grandmother fell ill.

Florence stayed at her side and looked after her. Slowly she began to help the poor people of a village nearby.

Florence soon found that she could not do her work properly. She did not have the training to do her work. So she began to read books about medicine. A few years later she got the chance to go to Germany and learn about nursing in a hospital there.

When she returned to England, she became superintendent of an organization care of the sick in London. She began to train nurses and became quite famous.

In 1854 the Crimean War broke out. The Government sent Florence Nightingale to a place called Sentari in Turkey. She was put in charge of a team of forty nurses. The hospital at Sentari was full of soldiers injured in the war.

Florence worked very hard to improve the condition of the hospital.

She cleaned up the hospital and built a new kitchen, which served better food. With her own money, she bought new sheets and clothes for the patients. She spent many hours talking to them. She tried her best to make them comfortable and happy. At night she went from bed to bed carrying a lamp. This is how she got the name, 'The Lady with the Lamp'.

Florence worked so hard that she became very ill. But she refused to return to England. In 1860 she started the Nightingale School for Nurses. Because of her efforts, nurses became respected all over the country. Florence Nightingale died on August 13, 1910 in London. She is the greatest person in the history of nursing.