Florence Nightingale (1820–1910) was born into a wealthy English family but trained as a nurse against her parents' wishes. During the Crimean War (1853–1856) she led a team of nurses to the British military hospital at Scutari (in modern Turkey), where she insisted on hand-washing, ventilation and basic sanitation that dramatically reduced the death rate from disease.
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Her night-time rounds with an oil lamp earned her the nickname "the Lady with the Lamp". After the war she founded the Nightingale Training School for Nurses at St Thomas' Hospital in London in 1860 — the first secular nursing school in the world — and is regarded as the founder of modern nursing.
You may be asked which war Florence Nightingale served in (the Crimean War), or what nickname she was given.
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