1. Emma McAlpine
The Angel of Mercy

2. Florence Nightingale
3. Before she was famous...
Born in 12 May 1820 in Florence, Italy
Died 13 August 1910
Privileged upbringing, well educated
Persuaded her family to let her train as a nurse as she believed it was her calling from God who spoke to her not long before her 17th birthday, and called [her] to His service
4. Career beginnings
Nightingale worked hard to become a nurse; against the expectation of her to become a wife and a mother
She struggled to study arts and sciences against the restrictive societal code for affluent English women
5. Personal Life
Proposed to by politician and poet Richard Monckton Milnes, 1st Baron Houghton
Declined to focus on nursing
6. Nursing
Father gave her 500 a year to live
Appointed to look after nurses in Turkey by Minister of War, Sidney Herbert the two became life-long friends (although she was accused of hastening his death in 1861)
Arrived at Scutari in November 1854 stationed a few hundred miles from the front line
7. In the Crimea
Wrote of disgusting conditions, poor hygiene and supplies
Credited with improving medical sanitation
However some argued, at the time, that things were improving when she arrived, or werent as bad as Nightingale made out
8. Return to England
On return to England in 1856, she disappeared from the public eye probably due to post-traumatic stress and dealing with what she had seen
Wrote a book Notes for Nursing and established the Nightingale Training School in 1869
9. Legacy
Nursing a respectable female occupation
Lady with the Lamp
Nightingale Pledge made by Nurses
12 May is International Nurses Day
Florence Nightingale Syndrome
Suggestions for Thought
10. Legacy
Statue in Waterloo Place, Westminster
House now a National Trust museum
Films have been made about her since 1912
Objected to photographs, there are a few rare ones
Invented the Pie Chart (Seriously. I know!!)
11. Mary Seacole
12. Born in 1805 in Kingston, Jamaica
Died on 14 May 1881
Father white Scottish officer
Mother free Creole woman and a Doctress
Proud of her Scottish heritage
Referred to herself often as a Creole which generally meant racially neutral or refers to the children of white settlers
13. Seacole live with an elderly woman for a few years, whom she called her "kind patroness
She was treated as a member of her patroness's family and received a good education
As an educated daughter of a Scottish officer and a free black woman with a respectable business, shewould have held a high position in Jamaican society
14. Personal Life
Married Edwin Horatio Hamilton Seacole in Kingston, 10 November 1836
She describes her entire marriage in nine lines near the beginning of her autobiography
Husband died in October 1844, and her mother passed away shortly after
Seacole records an American giving a speech at a dinner in which he praisedSeacole, and said that "she's so many shades removed from being entirely black
He went on to say that "if we could bleach her by any means we would... and thus make her acceptable in any company as she deserves to be
Seacole was livid and replied that she would have been just as happy to have a complexion "as dark as any", and wishedfor "the general reformation of American manners"
15. The Crimea
Seacoleapplied in various ways to join the medical forces in the Crimea, but was consistently refused
Records show other black women suffered similar results
Seacoledecided to travel to Crimea under her own steam to open the British Hotel.
She printed business cards were printed and sent to announce her intention to open "a mess-table and comfortable quarters for sick and convalescent officers. Her friend Thomas Day turned up in London and joined her.
16. The Crimea
Seacole built the British Hotel from iron sheets, wood and packing cases from the nearby village of Kamara
Florence Nightingale subtly disapproved of Seacolesgiving the soldiers alcohol and opening the hotel to tourist, suggesting it was little more than a brothel
However, Nightingale did later acknowledge the good Seacole did; she was an anonymous donor to the Seacole Testimonial Fund following Seacoles return to England
17. Who was the real Angel of Mercy?
Nightingales legacy means she likely had the most impact on modern nursing plus she invented the pie-chart.
However I think Seacoles display of going above and beyond expectation shows her as the true Angel of Mercy