Britain, France and Turkey were at war with Russia in 1854. Russia was defeated in Alma during what was known as the Crimean war. Many on the English side had died due to lack of medical facilities. The British camp on the outskirts of Constantinople was in a sorry state of affairs with wounded soldiers lying on the floor and hapless doctors treating them with limited resources.
During this time, a 34-year-old statistician made the rounds at night holding a lamp and tended to the injured. Sydney Herbert, the minister of war had written to her and she had come to the camp with 38 nurses. Using her mathematical knowledge, the lady figured out that many were dying due to communicable and infectious diseases.
She procured hundreds of scrub brushes and asked the least infirm patients to scrub the inside of the hospital from floor to ceiling. Seeing her compassion, the soldiers took to calling her “The Lady with the....
