Westminster Abbey Commemoration Service for Florence Nightingale
The Florence Nightingale Commemoration Service is held annually at Westminster Abbey.
Sadly due to COVID-19 restrictions we were unable to invite all our supporters, scholars, alumni and friends to book tickets for the annual Florence Nightingale Commemoration Service on 12th May 2021 at Westminster Abbey. Guests in attendance were invited as representatives of nursing and midwifery as well as ambassadors of the Foundation.
The 2021 Service was one of remembrance and thanks to the nurses and midwives who have looked after our loved ones.
You can view the photographs from our socially distanced event here.
The Lamp
During the Crimean War, Florence Nightingale was known for carrying a lamp at night around the wards to visit wounded soldiers. The soldiers would see her lamp and feel that they had been given hope for survival. The Lamp has since become an international symbol of nursing.
Central to the memorial service is the Lamp which was given to the Foundation by Sir Dan Mason OBE in 1968 in memory of his mother Kathleen Dampier-Bennett, a Trustee and supporter of the Foundation. It was agreed the Lamp will be carried by a Florence Nightingale Foundation scholar during the ceremony and is housed within the Florence Nightingale Chapel at Westminster Abbey.
