LADY WITH THE LANTERN
We all know Florence Nightingale as the “lady with the lamp” but it’s recently come to light that our revered nurse often held a lantern while she was checking up on her many patients.
Curators at the Florence Nightingale Museum, London, say Florence used a Turkish “fanoos”, a lantern traditionally lit at Ramadan to mark the religious period, and they have one that she actually used housed in their collection.
“A lot of reporters went out to cover the Crimean War at the time, as you would have now. But there weren’t many photographers,” David Green, the museum’s director, told The Telegraph .“So it is reported that there is this almost semi-religious figure tending to the wounded at night with her lamp, and people would imagine a candle.”
Florence Nightingale is this issue’s Great Briton. Turn to page 52 to read all about her inspiring life.