Miss Nightingale was unable to make the journey to the Guildhall to receive the Freedom, and it was arranged that the presentation should be made, on her behalf, to her nearest relative.
The ceremony took place March 16th, 1908, in the Council Chamber at the Guildhall, the Right Hon. the Lord Mayor, Sir John Bell, Kt., presiding. There was a large attendance, invitations having been issued to leading medical and hospital authorities and to other representative people. There was a goodly gathering of nurses.
The City Chamberlain (Sir Joseph Dimsdale) asked Mr. L. H. Shore Nightingale, who represented Miss Nightingale, to accept the casket containing the Freedom, and made a most felicitous speech. A cheque for 106 guineas, to be devoted to any charities which Miss Nightingale was pleased to name, was given with the casket.
Mr. Shore Nightingale replied, regretting that Miss Nightingale was unable to be present, and accepting the honour on her behalf.
Mr. Henry Bonham Carter, for many years secretary of the Nightingale Fund, gave an interesting account of his early recollections of Miss Nightingale, and related that on one occasion when they were young people she had given him first aid after an accident. In conclusion he spoke of the high qualities of heart, mind, and character which had enabled Miss Nightingale to achieve such great and signal success in the work to which she devoted her life.
We honour the soldier and applaud the valiant hero, but it required a more indomitable spirit, a higher courage, to purge the pestilential hospital of Scutari; to walk hour after hour its miles of fetid corridors crowded with suffering, even agonised, humanity, than in the heat of battle to go “down into the jaws of death,” as did the noble “Six Hundred.” A grateful nation laid its offering at the feet of the heroine of the Crimea, poets wafted her fame abroad, and the poor and suffering loved her. In barracks, in hospital, and in camp the soldier has cause to bless her name for the comfort he enjoys, the sufferers in our hospital wards have trained nurses through her initiative, the sick poor are cared for in their own homes, and the paupers humanely tended in the workhouse, as a direct result of reforms which her example or counsel prompted. No honour or title can ennoble the name of Florence Nightingale; it is peerless by virtue of her heroic deeds.
In Memoriam
The death of Miss Nightingale occurred somewhat suddenly on the afternoon of August 13th, 1910, at her residence 10, South Street, Park Lane. The cause of death was heart failure. She sank peacefully to rest in the presence of two of her relatives. Until the day before her death she was in her usual health and bright spirits. In the previous May she celebrated her ninetieth birthday, spending the day quietly with her household. On that occasion she was the recipient of many congratulations from her friends, and her room was gay with spring flowers. The King, in the midst of his own bereavement, in the recent death of his father, was not unmindful of the heroine of the Crimea, and sent her the following message:
“To Miss Florence Nightingale, O.M.