Posts by Richard Bates
London Road Community Hospital in Derby Renamed After Florence Nightingale
July 6, 2021
On July 5th 2021, London Road Community Hospital in Derby was renamed Florence Nightingale Community Hospital. In addition to the renaming, the current and former chairs of the hospital, respectively Dr Kathy McLean and John Rivers CBE, unveiled a new statue of Florence Nightingale. In his talk at the event, Mr Rivers highlighted how Florence …
Book talk – Richard on Florence Nightingale at Home
February 16, 2021
On 12 February, I gave a talk to the Derby Archaelogical Society about our book, Florence Nightingale at Home. You can watch the talk at the following link: Richard’s talk to the DAS
Interview with Ian Maclean MBE of John Smedley Ltd
November 3, 2020
John Smedley Ltd is one of the oldest textile businesses in the world, having been first established at Lea in Derbyshire in 1784 by Peter Nightingale – Florence’s great-great-uncle. I recently interviewed Ian Maclean, its current managing director, about the company’s historical legacy, links with Nightingale, and its work during the pandemic, for which Ian …
Our exhibition – update
October 26, 2020
Our exhibition, ‘Florence Nightingale Comes Home’, which was originally scheduled to open in the spring, finally opened on Thursday 29 October 2020 – only to have to re-close again on the 30th because of new Covid-19 restrictions. In the first instance the closure lasts for 28 days. We are hoping to film a virtual guided …
Congratulations to nurses celebrated in Queen’s Birthday Honours
October 12, 2020
The recently-announced Queen’s Birthday honours list celebrates more than 50 nurses, with particular attention paid to those working in emergency care, infection prevention and control, public health, research and the military. The awards include two new damehoods, notably including Anne-Marie Rafferty, who is part of our Nightingale project’s advisory board. the honours list acknowledges her …
Louise Page 1955-2020
September 24, 2020
This post is to mark the passing of Louise Page, who died earlier this year after a battle with cancer. Louise was a prolific and acclaimed playwright, scriptwriter and academic. The Guardian published an obituary of her in June. Louise was a friend of, and contributor to, the Nightingale Comes Home project. As part of her work with the …
Ann Milne – A Nottingham Army Wife who Nursed in the Crimean War
September 1, 2020
Our latest guest post comes from David Stewart OBE, a former head teacher and champion of the Nottingham arts scene and local history. This post discusses the Crimean War experience of Ann Milne, an army wife from Nottingham. Along with previous posts by Darcie Mawby on nurses and Sarah Topliss on Dr Edward Wrench, it …
The Florence Nightingale Foundation’s “Nightingale Frontline” Scheme
May 13, 2020
This guest post comes from Dr Gemma Stacey, Director of Academy, Florence Nightingale Foundation. For more information on Nightingale Frontline please visit https://florence-nightingale-foundation.org.uk/nightingale-frontline-nhs-leadership-support-service/ The Florence Nightingale Foundation was created to continue Florence’s legacy by providing leadership development for nurses and midwives. We have achieved this for many years by providing scholarships which enable nurses and midwives …
Project featured on BBC Radio 4 Today and local radio
May 12, 2020
Our new online exhibition, part of the suite of new content we have launched to commemorate Nightingale’s bicentenary, was featured on the Today programme on 12 May. You can listen to the clip here: The leader of our project, Professor Paul Crawford, was also interviewed on BBC Radio Derby – you can hear that clip …
Nursing Lives in the Crimean War
May 7, 2020
This post comes courtesy of Darcie Mawby, a second year PhD student at the University of Nottingham working on gender, conflict and identity in women’s accounts of the Crimean War, c. 1854–56. It is based on recent research conducted at the National Archives in Kew. [Crimean War. Women nurses tending wounded soldiers as “woman’s mission”. …
