The story of an owl called Athena which was Florence Nightingale’s much loved friend and companion.

 

Florence Nightingale is known as the Lady with the Lamp but she also owned a little owl called Athena and the history of Athena encapsulates the compassionate life of Florence beautifully.

Born on the 12th May 1820, to wealthy parents on an extended honeymoon in Florence (eat your heart out, Meghan), this younger of two sisters was educated thoroughly by her father, being proficient in mathematics and able to speak five languages.

It gets a little heavy when at the age of sixteen Florence gets the first of several calls from God to reduce human suffering and decides to become a nurse. This was obviously not felt to be a serious occupation for a young gentlewoman and it was only at the age of thirty that she managed to get some training in Germany.

It was at this stage that Athena entered the story, being rescued by Florence in the shadow of the Parthenon in Greece on 5th june, 1850. The tiny owlet had fallen into the dubious hands of children and was rescued for one farthing. She left the country in the company of Florence, a cicada in a mustard pot and 2 tortoises called Mr and Mrs Hill.

Athena was initially rather bad tempered but calmed down after Florence practised a mesmerising trick. She grew feathers rather than fluff and became Florence’s loyal companion. Apart from the odd flurry after a mouse, she liked hiding fur cuffs in her library lair. At times she would sit in an armchair gazing at the fire, or enjoyed excursions when she was carried in a little pocket in her mistress’s bag.

Florence started work at the wonderfully named Institution for sick gentlewomen in distressed circumstances (is. governesses), but in 1854 she was offered her opportunity of a lifetime when asked to supervise 38 nurses leaving for the hospitals of the Crimean war. The main hospital was at Scutari, across the Bosphorus from Constantinople.

In the excitement of packing, Athena was rather neglected and died alone in the family house. This unexpected death delayed the departure of the nursing expedition by two days while Athena was stuffed. On being presented with the finished article, Florence is said to have remarked ‘Poor little Beastie, it was odd how much I loved you’.

Florence went on to make her name at Scutari, bringing in such innovations as cleanliness, new clothes for the patients and correspondence to their families.  Her affectionate nickname dates from her habit of walking the wards at night with a Turkish lantern (not the Greek model depicted in romantic paintings).

While there she contacted Crimean fever (now thought to be brucellosis from infected milk) and her sister Parthenope, Lady Verney, wrote Life and death of Athena, an owlet from the Parthenon to ‘cheer her up’, illustrating it herself.

In August 1856 Florence returned from the Crimea, continuing to keep busy pushing for social and medical reform. In 1860 she established the Nightingale School of Nursing at St Thomas’ hospital, which became probably her greatest legacy, as well as publishing books on care of the sick.

In later life Florence enjoyed the company of cats and other pets but only Athena, as far as I am aware, had the honour of being stuffed. Outliving the Victorian age, declining a state funeral and Westminster Abbey, Florence was interred in the family plot at St Margaret’s church in East Wellow, Hampshire, upon her death on 13th August, 1910.

So exit left, Florence, now no longer even found on the old £10 note. However, Athena remains in vivid-eyed feathered splendour in her verdant vitrine looking just the same as when Florence forlornly gazed on her before her delayed departure to fame in the annals of the Crimean War.

The Florence Nightingale museum covers her life and times in a somewhat disjointed basic-information only style. It must have one of the most unprepossessing entrances of any museum and is found within the precincts of St Thomas’s Hospital in London SE1. It is a good place to buy weird gummy sweets in various anatomical shapes for children and nearby there are lovely gardens overlooking the Thames and the Houses of Parliament.

It also has Athena, the owlet that loved a very unusual nurse.

 

Florence Nightingale Museum, 2 Lambeth Palace Road, London SE1 7EW.  Buy tickets in advance on Groupon for half price entry.