Mark Bostridge at the erection of a statue to Mary Seacole at St Thomas' Hospital in London. In interviews Bostridge explained that he was not opposed to a statue to Seacole but to the siting of it at the hospital where Florence Nightingale founded her nurse training school in 1860, influencing the development of nursing throughout the world. Bostridge argues that Seacole was not a "pioneer nurse" as some of the statue campaigners maintain. He also points to the way in which Nightingale's enormous contributions to public health are now commonly and mistakenly attributed to Seacole by a wide range of British
SRM Nightingale School Valliammai Society began its educational activities in 1969 by starting a Primary School in the name of Florence Nightingale and upgrading the status to Matriculation Higher Secondary School in 1981. In 1984, SRM ventured into higher education with the launch of the Valliammai Polytechnic. The year 1985 saw the birth of the SRM Engineering College, the flagship institution of the group. During 1992-93 the Group ventured into medical education and started SRM College of Nursing and SRM College of Pharmacy. During 1993-94 two more medical institutions namely SRM School of Nursing and SRM College of Physiotherapy were added. During the