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
Florence Nightingale Foundation Florence Nightingale Foundation The Florence Nightingale Foundation (FNF) is a charity organisation in the United Kingdom that provides scholarships to nurses, midwives and other health professionals while serving as a living memorial of the work of Florence Nightingale. In 1912 a memorial to Florence Nightingale was first proposed by Mrs Ethel Bedford-Fenwick at an International Council of Nurses Congress in Cologne. The intention was to create a foundation to provide educational support for nurses. Due to the 1914-1918 War, it was not until 1929 that the memorial proposal was activated at the ICN Grand Council in Montreal. In 1931 the