The Lady with a Lamp dvd Studiocanal, 1951 99 minutes £10
Is there anyone who, on hearing the words ‘the lady with a lamp’, would fail to think of Florence Nightingale ? The phrase explicitly referring to Florence Nightingale was immortalised by the American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in his poem Santa Filomena (1858).
It served to reinforce a reputation which was already strongly embedded in the minds and imagination of the British public at the time and has remained so ever since.
To witness the life that Florence Nightingale (1820-1910) left in order to to pursue her call from God to follow a career in nursing is enough on its own to earn admiration, praise and respect, given the general attitude to women in mid-19th century Britain.
Yet more was to come.
Having completed nurse training in Germany, the Crimean War (1854-56) with Turkey, Britain, France and Sardinia against Russia, was the spark which caused Florence to go to the Crimea with a troop of nurses to care for sick and wounded soldiers only to find that women were not at all welcomed by the army hierarchy there. ‘Inappropriate’, they said.
Her determination and perseverance, however, were more than a match for the many deliberate obstacles and diversions placed in her way.
Even the support at home by the government and parliamentarians was by no means unanimous;
resistance was quite fierce and uncompromising.
The story is fairly well known even if only in outline but this film tells it superbly well with Anna Neagle and Michael Wilding as the key stars.
Florence Nightingale was the first female member to be admitted to the Royal Statistical Society and was awarded the Order of Merit just 3 years before her death in 1910.
This is a heart-warming and engaging story of a national icon, a redoubtable lady, well told and well filmed.