Inspired by Florence Nightingale and her nurses’ work during the Crimean War, a fund was set up in 1855 by members of the public to raise money for her work. By June 1856, £44,039 (equivalent to over £4.26 million in 2016) was raised. Nightingale decided to use the money to set up a training school at St Thomas’ Hospital. The first nurses began their training on 9 July 1860. Graduates of the school used to be called ‘Nightingales’.

Between 1860 and 1903 the school certified 1,907 nurses as having had one year’s training. Many of the trainees went on to be matrons or superintendents of nursing.