A formidable woman

King's College London has profiles of famous alumni on display at the front of their building on the Strand, including this one of Florence Nightingale who is popularly known as the "lady with the lamp". This refers to her administering to wounded British soldiers in the hospital she set up at Scutari during the Crimean War. In fact she was as formidable an innovator and manager as she was a nursing pioneer.  She was asked by Sydney Herbert, the then War Secretary, to go to the Crimea and she subsequently prevailed upon Herbert to build a hospital for wounded soldiers returning to England. She was the key influence in the hospital's design which set the model for what became known as Nightingale wards. The hospital,  known as the Royal Herbert Hospital, was located in Woolwich in South London.  I got to know it when I took charge of the neighbouring Brook General Hospital in 1980. The Royal Herbert had closed in 1977 when the Queen Elizabeth Military Hospital opened on Woolwich Common but I was able to get permission to hold the Brook's summer fete in its grounds. The fete was opened by the celebrated comedian and actor, Frankie Howerd, who, like Bob Hope, came from nearby Eltham. I thought that the Royal Herbert would be an ideal location for a museum dedicated to the history of healthcare but did not succeed when I pitched the idea to the Department of Health. It was subsequently sold and redeveloped as the Royal Herbert Pavilions,  a luxury residential development which retains the exterior of the buildings. The Brook itself closed some time ago and its facilities transferred to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, which then dropped its Military designation. There is now a Nightingale Museum at St Thomas Hospital on Westminster Embankment facing the Houses of Parliament which, I regret to say, I have yet to visit. I must remedy that soon.