Photograph of Florence Nightingale, touched up in colour, in gilded wooden frame

In late 1854, following reports about the dreadful conditions and lack of medical supplies affecting injured soldiers fighting the Crimean War, Nightingale was invited by the Secretary of War to oversee the introduction of female nurses into military hospitals in Turkey. Formulating her own theories around infection, Nightingale worked to drastically reduce the numbers of soldiers dying from illnesses such as typhus, caused by poor standards of cleanliness.