This makes me wonder if there are any songs about the women who came before WWI and fought so hard to gain legitimacy for the fledgling nursing profession in Florence Nightingale's time. Anne Perry's mystery novels of Victorian England have a recurring mention of Nightingale and a constant juxtaposition of social issues and the changes which were so desparately needed. When Nightingale came back to England from the Crimean War, nurses were used only for the most basic patient care, carrying slops, changing and washing bed linens, etc. Conditions were less than sanitary and they were usually only a step above prostitutes in the social order, even those who were schooled and knew something about treatments.

kat