Florence Nightingale Service at Westminster Abbey
Arrangers travelled all the way from Northern Ireland to represent NIGFAS at Westminster Abbey and arrange flowers at the High Altar for the Florence Nightingale Service.
The white flowers included Gladioli, Chrysanthemum (both bloom and spray), Gerbera, Eustoma, Rosa, and Antirrhinum.
As the Florence Nightingale Foundation explains: The Florence Nightingale Commemoration Service has been held annually at Westminster Abbey since 1965. It is a very important day in the annual FNF calendar and, indeed, for nursing and midwifery communities worldwide, as we come together to give thanks and to celebrate nurses and midwives everywhere who continue Florence Nightingale’s legacy today.
Central to the commemoration service is the Lamp. Florence Nightingale was known as ‘The Lady with The Lamp’ as she made her rounds at night tending to the soldiers wounded in the Crimean War.
The Lamp used in the service today was purchased in memory of Mrs Kathleen Dampier-Bennett, a committee member of the Foundation from 1951-1968. The Lamp is inscribed in her memory and was dedicated by the Dean of Westminster at the service on 12 May 1970, the 150th anniversary of Florence Nightingale’s birth. It has been used at every service since.
